The presence of variants of COVID-19 in Pitkin County will remain unconfirmed after the state public health lab was unable to sequence the samples in question, an official said this week.
The samples from two Pitkin County residents and one other person who works in the county did not contain enough viral load to be analyzed and sequenced, said Josh Vance, the county’s epidemiologist. But based on subsequent testing, he said he’s confident any risk to the community has passed.
“We feel we’ve been able to contain the outbreak here,” Vance told members of the Pitkin County Board of Health on Thursday. “We feel like we’ve been able to close it out for now.”
Pitkin County’s move back to Orange level restrictions Tuesday prompted relief and happiness from local officials, though some sounded notes of caution as well.
Orange-level COVID-19 restrictions remain just out of reach for Pitkin County as local health officials wait for the county’s incidence rate to dip below a threshold of 700 cases per 100,000 people in a 14-day period.
A rapidly declining incidence rate means the county could hit that number as soon as Monday, according to Pitkin County spokeswoman Tracy Trulove. The public health department would be prepared to enact the lighter restrictions as early as 12:01 a.m. Tuesday morning if that’s the case.
But the county isn’t there quite yet: the incidence rate on Jan. 31 was 732, just shy of the mark to move from Red to Orange-level restrictions, according to Sunday’s daily epidemiology report
Alex Hager / Aspen Public Radio
The rate of new COVID-19 cases in Pitkin County has dropped sharply over the course of the past two weeks. That number is steadily declining from a peak on Jan. 15, when the county’s two-week incidence rate was the highest in the state by a significant margin.
Despite new infections cropping up in hundreds of residents in the beginning of January, Aspen Valley Hospital was never overwhelmed. Medical experts say that is likely the result of caution in the community.
“Aspen is well-educated and knows that if the incidence rate is high they should really maintain all those measures that they can to prevent getting the illness themselves,” said Catherine Bernard, an emergency room physician and chief of medical staff at Aspen Valley Hospital.