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
The Belly Up Aspen owner on Thursday told members of the Pitkin County Board of Health he’s committed to ensuring that 80% of his customers each night will be vaccinated.
Financial and industry data for the first quarter of 2020 aren’t exactly a portrayal of a thriving local retail economy, but they also show that a recovery is in motion.
A report issued Monday by the city of Aspen’s finance department was a mixed bag. It showed the hardest hit retail sectors January-through-March were restaurants and accommodations, with their respective sales totals respectively down 27.1% and 27% from the same three months in 2020. On the brighter side, of the 12 other industries tracked by city, 10 saw sales increases in this year’s first quarter over January through March 2020, the report showed.
“While sales are pacing even with quarter 1 of 2020 in total, the city’s two largest industries accommodations and restaurants continue to lag behind, each down about 27% to date, and are being offset by the recoveries experienced in other industries,” wrote Anthony Lewin, who is the city of Aspen’s senior financial tax auditor, in the report.
Project manager Colin O’Neill works on the heated flooring in a new Snowmass playground structure being built by Garrett Brown Designs in Base Village on Tuesday, May 18, 2021. The project will be finished on Memorial Day weekend; masks won’t be required for the kids playing on the structure or anyone walking outside in Base Village after a May 17 town council vote eliminated mandatory outdoor mask zones in Snowmass Village. (Kelsey Brunner/Snowmass Sun)
Outdoor mandatory mask zones in Snowmass Village went the way of the woolly mammoth May 17 when Town Council unanimously voted on a new emergency ordinance that immediately aligned the town with Pitkin County COVID-19 guidelines and repealed town ordinances that put those zones in place.