Garfield County Public Health has determined that six additional employees at the Glenwood Springs Community Center were exposed to COVID-19, the city reported in a Saturday news release.
The findings prompted city officials to extend the community center’s temporary closure until March 14, they announced. All reservations until then are canceled.
The hockey rink, however, is exempt from the closure and will continue to operate as normal.
After an employee in the city parks and recreation department began displaying symptoms late this week, the city initially closed the center Thursday. The city at the time reported no other exposures were detected among additional community center employees.
The Glenwood Springs Community Center will be closed through at least Saturday after an employee displayed symptoms of COVID-19, a city news release states.
“Currently, the City is treating the employee, who works at the Community Center as presumptive positive,” the release states. “Community Center members are not believed to have been exposed.”
As recommended by public health guidelines, the employee will quarantine, along with “others in their immediate work area.”
Garfield County Public Health is conducting contact tracing for all individuals who may have been in contact with the employee. Anyone with questions should contact the public health office at 970-945-6614 in Glenwood Springs or 970-625-5200 in Rifle.
The state of Colorado anticipates opening the next phase of vaccine distribution, known as 1B.3, in mid-March.
That phase is to include frontline workers in the food service and grocery sectors, public transit, agriculture, direct care providers, human services and other occupations deemed “essential.”
It also makes the vaccine available to anyone ages 16-64 with a qualifying high-risk chronic condition.
That will greatly increase the number of people within the general population who are eligible to receive the vaccine.
To prepare, Garfield County Public Health is planning to have more COVID-19 vaccine clinics starting at the same time, Public Health Specialist Carrie Godes said.
Chelsea Self / Post Independent
The rate of new coronavirus disease cases in Garfield County continues to decline, following state and national trends of late, but there is some concern that the number of people seeking testing has also dropped off.
As of Tuesday, the number of new COVID-19 cases per day over the past two weeks had dropped to less than nine.
The latest seven-day total was 34 cases, and the county’s test positivity rate has dropped to 2.2%.
Both of those measures, and a test-turnaround time of 1.8 days, puts Garfield County at Level Blue, or “cautious,” in terms of risk of disease spread.
That’s one more hour until last call.
Gov. Jared Polis and Colorado Department of Public Health and Human Services Executive Director Jill Hunsaker Ryan announced on Friday that several counties across the Centennial State can now begin to operate at a less-restrictive level “yellow” on the COVID-19 dial.
This includes Garfield County, and the “Dial 2.0” metric will officially go into effect at 9 a.m. Saturday just in time for Super Bowl Sunday.
“We’re on the right path but we’re not there yet,” Garfield County Commissioner John Martin said. “Let’s keep up the good work, and every week counts. Maybe by summertime we’ll be able to have our county fair and have all kinds of folks together and everybody will be well.”