El Paso County could see an acceleration of COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks, as the state experiences a "stubborn" plateau in the continuing pandemic, health officials cautioned.
And the jump comes as the county is preparing to take over more control of pandemic-related restrictions by mid-April.
Increased indoor seating at restaurants, returns to in-person learning, more people traveling for spring break and the highest numbers of confirmed cases of two highly infectious variant strains of COVID-19 in the state are all indicators that the epidemic has “accelerated considerably” in El Paso County, said Dr. Phoebe Lostroh, a Colorado College professor who has a Ph.D. in microbiology from Harvard University.