Number of suicides in 2020 about average despite coronavirus hardships in La Plata County
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Community groups say they anticipated impacts of pandemic, boosted prevention efforts
Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021 7:00 AM Updated: Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021 6:36 PM Breeah Kinsella, executive director for Celebrating Healthy Communities, leads a group training in 2018. Kinsella said the community was able to avoid a spike in suicides this year by increasing access to services and relief money. Jerry McBride/Durango Herald file
Number of suicides in 2020 about average despite coronavirus hardships in La Plata County Breeah Kinsella, executive director for Celebrating Healthy Communities, leads a group training in 2018. Kinsella said the community was able to avoid a spike in suicides this year by increasing access to services and relief money.
By Randi Pierce
Staff Writer
Archuleta County received a bit of good news late last week, just in time for Christmas the rate of new infections of COVID-19 is decreasing, and Archuleta County is trending toward Level Orange: High Risk on the state’s COVID dial.
San Juan Basin Public Health (SJBPH) released the good news on Friday, Dec. 18.
In a press release, the organization states it “is pleased to report that both Archuleta and La Plata counties are making progress in critical metrics to return to Level Orange: High Risk public health measures on Colorado’s COVID-19 Dial. The Dial pairs the public health protocols for businesses and events with underlying data about the pandemic in each county. In the past two weeks, both counties have begun to see improvements in case incidence and test positivity rates.”
The following story was updated to reflect the cancellation of testing on Dec. 22 and 29.
By Randi Pierce
Staff Writer
Despite logging fewer new cases in the last week than in weeks past, Archuleta County’s cumulative incidence rate is still “very, very high,” according to San Juan Basin Public Health’s (SJBPH) Brian Devine.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Archuleta County had a total of 421 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 among permanent residents, according to SJBPH, with that count beginning in late March.
On Dec. 1, 259 total cases had been reported.
No COVID-related deaths have been identified in Archuleta County, according to SJBPH.