The Aspen Covid Testing lab team works to process COVID-19 tests on Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
After seven days of declining COVID-19 case counts, Pitkin County will move back to Yellow level restrictions at 6 a.m. Saturday, the county’s public health director said Thursday.
Thursday marked the seventh consecutive day that seven-day case counts were 90 or below, which is the maximum threshold for the Yellow level, said Jordana Sabella. That was enough for her to call state public health officials late Thursday afternoon and confirm that the county can move to the lesser restrictions as of Saturday morning.
on Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
At Thursday afternoon’s Pitkin County Board of Health meeting, staff and officials had plenty to be hopeful for.
Thanks to two vaccine clinics last week, most of the county’s educators and essential workers are now fully vaccinated, as are seniors age 60 and older and people with two or more comorbidities, according to a vaccination update from Emergency Response and Epidemiology Administrator Carlyn Porter during the meeting.
Plus, the county is on track to begin administering vaccines to people in Phase 1B.4 on March 21, adding restaurant workers, people age 50 and older, and people with one or more comorbidity to the inoculation list; after that, it’s on to the general public.
But manager Jim Morrison canât say why, exactly.
âOf course our business is down,â he told the News&Guide. âItâs just too difficult to say how much is purely affidavit driven, COVID driven, or snow driven. Itâs pretty evident that people are willing to risk traveling in COVID environments, even at a high risk level.â
Why hotels in the Roaring Fork Valley are seeing so much less traffic than those in resort towns like Jackson Hole is a central question in an ongoing debate in Pitkin County. Health officials there have reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic in two ways that health officials in Teton County have not: by requiring visitors to fill out a form confirming theyâve tested negative before arriving in Aspen and shutting down indoor dining when cases peaked in early January.
Grassroots TV
Ballots have been mailed to most Aspen residents who will elect their next mayor and fill two city council seats in the municipal election on Tuesday, March 2. There are eight candidates running for the two open council seats. Incumbent Mayor Torre is running for a second, two-year term and faces a single challenger, artist Lee Mulcahy.
The Aspen Times and Aspen Daily News recently held their signature “Squirm Night” virtually with both the Mayoral and City Council candidates on Grassroots TV. Each candidate gave a short opening statement and answered a few rapid-fire questions before diving into more in-depth topics ranging from affordable housing to climate change to COVID-19.
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