While Pitkin County was expecting to receive about $700,000 from the federal government in the latest round of reimbursements for COVID-19-related expenses, officials were recently notified they would get more than five times that amount.
“It was significantly more than we anticipated so that was a nice surprise,” Ann Driggers, the county’s finance director, said Tuesday. “I wasn’t going to complain.”
And while the nearly $3.9 million in CARES Act funding allocated to Pitkin County and local municipalities in the past few days by state public health officials must be spent by Dec. 30, Driggers didn’t think that would be a problem.
Not only did members of the Pitkin County Board of Health decide not to move into Red level restrictions Thursday, they voted to increase the maximum number of people allowed at private, informal gatherings in the county from five to 10.
Pitkin County’s traveler affidavit program appears to be getting a mixed reaction through a spate of recent vacation cancellations and national exposure that the Aspen area is a safe place to visit.
Public confusion over the program, announced by Pitkin County the first week of December, has prompted a number of would-be guests to shelf their plans to visit Aspen over the upcoming holidays, Debbie Braun, president of Aspen Chamber Resort Association, told the Pitkin County Board of Health during its virtual meeting Thursday.
It also has local decision-makers considering putting on their best PR face for the program by emphasizing its benefits.
Health board approves 10-person informal gatherings but doesn t recommend them | News aspendailynews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from aspendailynews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Pitkin County’s board of health to get local vaccine update Thursday at meeting
Staff and wire reports
Colorado will receive its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines next week if the federal approval process goes smoothly and supply chains function as expected, state health officials said Wednesday.
The Pitkin County Board of Health has a meeting Thursday, and an update on the local vaccine rollout is on the agenda
. Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Executive Director Jill Hunsaker is also schedule to give a state update at Thursday’s Pitkin County meeting.
The state is expecting 46,800 doses of the Pfizer vaccine the week of Dec. 13 and 95,600 doses of the Moderna vaccine the following week of Dec. 20, according to Scott Bookman, COVID-19 incident commander for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.