Courtesy of Aspen Valley Hospital
Roaring Fork Valley health leaders say high levels of local demand for coronavirus vaccines are outpacing new shipments of doses from the state. That is partially due to recent and sudden changes to the state’s priority guidelines, which made people 70 years of age or older eligible for the vaccine.
“We’re definitely ordering more vaccine than is coming,” said Carrie Godes, public health specialist for Garfield County. “It is coming, but it’s slow. A lot of our messages that we have been urging are for patience. We’re optimistic, we’re hopeful, we are administering doses.”
Health department officials in Pitkin County are not ready to give vaccines to those 70 and older and in the updated 1B group, the county said Thursday. They need more doses, but have set up a pre-registration form.
Aspen Valley Hospital was down 25 staff members mid-March, all who were âself-monitoring at home and in isolation due to symptoms that range from mild to moderate,â AVH Chief Marketing Officer Jennifer Slaughter said at the time. Aspen Daily News file photo
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Note from the editor:
Today and Thursday, the Aspen Daily News runs its annual review of the yearâs biggest stories â and what a year itâs been. In todayâs paper, we recount five of the Top 10 stories that impacted the community, from No. 6 through No. 10. This year seemingly more than ever, the look back serves as a reminder of from where weâve come as a community. Unsurprisingly, the bottom half of the list are articles from the beginning months of the year, when this editor found herself practicing saying âepidemiologicalâ aloud and reading the latest in the New England Journal of Medicine to keep up with what exactly was known about a nov
Nearly everyone likes to celebrate the end-of-year holidays with a multitude of friends and family, ushering in the new year with parties, socializing and recreating together.
But not this year, please; we want to stay open, is the word from local, state and national authorities.
Despite warnings from health officials, people are still traveling this year, most of them keenly aware of the need to protect themselves and others.
While Saturdayâs TSA traffic was just 45% of the air traffic the day after Christmas one year ago, the Transportation Security Administration said it screened 1,128,773 people at airports nationwide on Saturday. That number represents the third-busiest day for domestic air travel since March.
Rose Laudicina/ The Aspen Times
“Targeted and universal testing” helped to identify and contain a COVID-19 outbreak linked to the Sundeck and Aspen Mountain Club last week, according to a report from Josh Vance, an epidemiologist who works with Pitkin County’s COVID-19 response team.
As of Sunday morning, 17 positive cases were confirmed among 72 employees who were tested for COVID-19.
Pitkin County Public Health initiated widespread testing at the two eateries managed by The Little Nell, which is part of Aspen Skiing Co., as a proactive measure last week after two employees independently sought testing and confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in the two weeks prior, according to a news release from The Little Nell on Sunday evening.