Delta to blame for Pitkin County s increased COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations aspentimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from aspentimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
While the COVID-19 delta variant has hit hard in some Western Slope counties, Pitkin County has so far only reported four cases, two of which involved out of county residents, an official said Thursday.
The delta variant now accounts for 58% of the new COVID-19 cases in the United States and, according to one study, is 50% more transmissible than the first alpha variant that circulated, said Josh Vance, Pitkin County epidemiologist.
“We just haven’t seen a lot of delta variant activity,” Vance told members of the Pitkin County Board of Health at their virtual meeting Thursday.
Other nearby resort counties were in the same boat as Pitkin, with Eagle and Summit counties each reporting just three delta variant cases, he said. Mesa County, however, has reported 600 delta cases, while Garfield County has seen 85 cases and Moffat County has reported 87 cases. On the Front Range, Denver has reported just 24 delta cases, while El Paso County where Colorado Springs is located has
People walk through the vendors during the first Aspen Saturday Market of the summer on Saturday, June 12, 2021, in downtown Aspen. Animals were not part of the attraction last summer amid the pandemic, but with restrictions having loosened this year s market is seemingly back to normal. Photo by Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times.
Despite an influx of summer tourists that is likely to peak next week with the Fourth of July weekend, the number of COVID-19 cases in Pitkin County remains low, sources said Friday.
“We used to have one of the highest incidence rates (of the virus) in the state and the nation,” Pitkin County Manager Jon Peacock said. “Now it’s one of the lowest. Our vaccination rates are very high.”
A Pitkin County Vaccination Clinic was in full swing in the Aspen High School gymnasium to administer the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine in Aspen on Thursday, May 13, 2021. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
Local public health officials do not think that large numbers of visitors to Aspen and Pitkin County this summer will result in sky-high numbers of COVID-19 cases like it did over the winter.
While large numbers of visitors yielded increased local case counts in December and January, public health did not see a corresponding rise in cases when large spring break crowds descended in late February and March, said Josh Vance, Pitkin County epidemiologist.
Pitkin County health officials: Don t believe vaccine myths aspentimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from aspentimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.