{"id":24045,"date":"2020-05-14T14:02:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T20:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-disputes-states-coronavirus-death-count\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:47:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:47:18","slug":"montezuma-county-disputes-states-coronavirus-death-count","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-disputes-states-coronavirus-death-count\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma County disputes state\u2019s coronavirus death count"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"An
An illustration depicting the 2019 novel coronavirus.<\/span>Illustration<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Montezuma County Coroner\u2019s office has disputed the state\u2019s claim of a third fatal case of the coronavirus in Cortez after finding that the person died of alcohol poisoning.<\/p>\n

County Coroner George Deavers said Tuesday the person tested positive for COVID-19, but an investigation by him and the pathologist determined the cause of death was ethanol toxicity. The person\u2019s blood alcohol content was .55, Deavers said. A BAC of .3 is considered lethal.<\/p>\n

\u201cCOVID was not listed on the death certificate as the cause of death. I disagree with the state for listing it as a COVID death, and will be discussing it with them this week,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Deavers said non-natural fatal events, such an accident or an overdose, take precedence as the cause of death over natural events such as COVID-19. He did not provide the name of the deceased person who tested positive for COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Deavers\u2019 remarks came a day after the Colorado Department of Health and Environment announced that it had denied the county\u2019s request to reopen restaurant dining rooms and other businesses at 40% capacity, stating that the threat of the virus in Montezuma County was too high to loosen state restrictions. The state health department announced the fatality as a COVID-19 death on Monday.<\/p>\n

While rejecting the county\u2019s appeal to reopen the businesses, CDPHE Executive Director Jill Hunsaker Ryan cited the recent new cases of the coronavirus in the county.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur reviewers have some concerns about vulnerabilities in Montezuma County and want to monitor the situation before further considering a variance,\u201d Ryan wrote.<\/p>\n

New cases in Montezuma County have increased in the past 10 days, Ryan said.<\/p>\n

According to the Colorado Department of Health and Environment, Montezuma County had 25 confirmed positives and three COVID-19 deaths as of May 12.<\/p>\n

The Montezuma County Public Health Department continues to report two COVID-19 deaths. On May 11, the department listed two COVID-caused deaths and a third that was not caused by the disease even though the disease was present.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe person who died did not die from COVID-19, but they did test positive for the virus,\u201d said county public information officer Vicki Shaffer. \u201cThe state is reporting that death as a COVID death, but our health department wanted to let people know that even though the person did have the virus, they did not die from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state health department has not responded to The Journal\u2019s<\/em> telephone calls and emails requesting comment and clarification.<\/p>\n

Montezuma County on Tuesday reported 25 positive cases, 13 recoveries and 431 negative tests results.<\/p>\n

County officials suggested a new category be added for active cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have 25 positive cases and 13 recoveries, so why not show that there are only 12 active cases?\u201d asked Commissioner Keenan Ertel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coroner admits alcohol, not COVID, killed man<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,21,255,13,28,29,668],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-cortez","tag-death-and-dying","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-public-health"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24045"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78374,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24045\/revisions\/78374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24045"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}