“I live in Pagosa Springs and tested positive for COVID-19. It’s my hope the information here will help you understand a little more about how this nasty virus arrived in our beautiful mountain town. I’m the first and I’m certain I won’t be the last…”
— from a letter published in the Pagosa Springs SUN, April 2, 2020
For several weeks, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread across America, Southwest Colorado continued to report ‘no confirmed cases.’ The key term here is “confirmed.” As we learned from a letter posted in the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN, a woman infected with the novel coronavirus arrived in Pagosa on March 11, following a trip ‘out of the country’. She made a decision to quarantine herself at home, in case she’d been exposed to the virus during her trip.
From her letter:
On Thursday morning, I started to get worried as the coughing became worse, I ached all over and my head was pounding like I had a migraine. So I called my doctor and spoke to his nurse. She advised me if I didn’t have shortness of breath, it wasn’t COVID-19. And at that time, I was breathing fine…
Six days later, on March 17, her symptoms had worsened and she checked into the Emergency Room at Pagosa Springs Medical Center (PSMC).
The hospital had limited test kits at the time, but they decided to use one on me. They asked me to self-isolate, which I agreed to. We went straight home from the ER and I returned to bed, running a fever once again…
…Nine days later, the call came from the hospital ER doctor. “You have COVID-19.” No, I wasn’t shocked. The ER doctor had warned me and my own intuition kept telling me this was not bronchitis or the regular flu…
You can read her full story here.
This story suggests that a person arriving in Pagosa Springs, already infected, might not get confirmation of their infection for more than a week, even after having a test sample taken.
According to Claire Ninde, Communications Director at SJBPH, “The turnaround on tests results has been ranging wildly. I think it is safe to say 5-10 days and hope they come on the earlier side of that range.”
A Daily Post reader emailed late last week, asking if we knew how many cases are now confirmed in Archuleta County. I replied that the San Juan Basin Public Health (SJBPH) website was showing only one “confirmed” case in Archuleta County as of last Friday…
… but reminded him that SJBPH had conducted ‘drive-through’ testing at the Pagosa Springs Medical Center on March 30… and we had not yet seen those results.
On Saturday, SJBPH reported five more residents in Archuleta County have tested positive for COVID-19. From their report:
These individuals are currently self-isolating. SJBPH will take all steps necessary to get in touch with anyone who had close direct contact with residents who are positive for COVID-19 to provide instructions for self-isolations, self-quarantining, and monitoring of symptoms.
In addition to the five new cases, SJBPH also reports that all results from the SJBPH community test site at Pagosa Springs Medical Center on March 30th, 2020, came back negative for the virus. The community testing site provided tests for 40 individuals and resulted in no lab-confirmed positive tests for the highly contagious novel corona virus. Despite these test results, the COVID-19 virus can be missed with current testing.
Executive Director of SJBPH’s Executive Director, Liane Jollon, was briefly quoted in the press release.
“With both the shortages in widespread testing and the possibility of tests missing the virus, please continue to self-isolate if you have symptoms…”
SJBPH sent out the following graphic on Friday, suggesting everyone wear a mask of some kind — but that commercial surgical masks should be reserved for “health care professionals, and the sick”.
That’s a ‘one-minute’ report on where we stand, here in Pagosa, from the health care perspective.
Then we have the local economic perspective, where masks and testing can provide but little benefit.
Archuleta County Commissioner Ronnie Maez and Pagosa Springs Mayor Don Volger met last week with local entrepreneur Jason Cox — owner of Riff Raff Brewing — to plot out a new COVID-19 relief program: “Take Out Tuesdays Community Meals Program.”
The program received $4,000 in funding from the Pagosa Springs Town Council at their special meeting last Thursday, although the details are still being worked out. The Council voted to support the program, financially, without much discussion, and without a detailed ‘plan of action.’
But the basic idea is that residents will use “curbside take-out protocol” to pick up free meals between the hours of 12 noon and 2 pm tomorrow, Tuesday, April 7, and for three subsequent Tuesdays. Town and County officials will be invited to meet the patrons and distribute printed materials to update residents on government and community efforts in response to the current crisis. From the Council packet:
The Thursday packet recommended that the Council “determine which Council members will be stationed at each restaurant”, but the ultimate Council vote merely authorized the money and didn’t specify any participants.
We are listening here to Mayor Don Volger:
“The restaurants are being contacted right now to see who wants to be included in this…
“The County is on board with this… It would involve County and Town leadership, to be at the different locations that are serving lunch, or whatever meals they decide to come up with… One of the handouts could be the flyer that [Council member Maddie Bergon] came up with.”
Here is that flyer. (Click the image for a larger version):
“The details are there in Jason’s outline. I didn’t read through all of them, as far as what the actual proposal said. But that’s essentially it. So our contribution would be $8,000.”
The mayor was corrected by Council member Bergon. “$4,000.”
“I’m sorry — that would be $4,000. Half of the $8,000,” the mayor corrected himself. “And then as many of us as possible to volunteer on Tuesday, if we can, to go ahead and greet the public and give information and answer questions. So that’s it.”
Council member Matt DeGuise made the motion to approve the $4,000 expenditure, and the motion passed unanimously.
Read Part Seven, tomorrow…