{"id":39392,"date":"2022-07-18T20:15:21","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T02:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/coronavirus-spikes-in-southwest-colorado-but-vaccines-reduce-severity\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:49:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:49:42","slug":"coronavirus-spikes-in-southwest-colorado-but-vaccines-reduce-severity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/coronavirus-spikes-in-southwest-colorado-but-vaccines-reduce-severity\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus spikes in Southwest Colorado, but vaccines reduce severity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The number of COVID-19 cases has spiked in Southwest Colorado, but the latest Omicron subvariants have less severe symptoms because of vaccine efficacy, health officials said.<\/p>\n

Montezuma County reported 95 new cases between July 1 and July 15, and La Plata County saw 260 new cases in the same time period, according to data from the Colorado Department of Health and Environment.<\/a><\/p>\n

The rates roughly match the period from June 14 to June 27, when Montezuma County reported 97 new cases, and La Plata County, 248 new cases.<\/p>\n

The number of new cases is actually much higher, said Marc Meyer, director of infection control for Southwest Health System, because home test results are underreported.<\/p>\n

He said recent COVID testing results done SHS show a positivity rate of 39%.<\/p>\n

Based on the two-week cumulative incident rate, Montezuma and La Plata counties have reached the \u201csevere risk\u201d category of Level Red \u2013 Level 5 of six levels.<\/p>\n

The Omicron strain sublineages BA. 4 and BA. 5 are the most dominant of the current COVID-19 cases.<\/p>\n

The strain is more infectious, but symptoms \u2013 a scratchy throat, headache and tiredness \u2013 have been less severe, Meyer said.<\/p>\n

Reduced symptoms are the result an effective vaccine and strong local vaccination rate, Meyer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vaccines and boosters are making a huge impact. It does not necessarily prevent infection, but by producing antibodies, it slows it down, and recovery is better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As of Friday, Southwest Memorial Hospital had no COVID-19 patients, he said.<\/p>\n

In Montezuma County, 74.6% of residents ages 5 and above have received a vaccination. In La Plata county 81.9% have received the vaccination.<\/p>\n

Free vaccinations and booster shots are available in Cortez by making an appointment with Montezuma County Public Health at 970-565-3056 or at Southwest Memorial Hospital at 970-564-2280.<\/p>\n

Last week, CDPHE began limiting its outbreak data <\/a>to priority settings and populations such as residential care facilities, correctional settings, child care and overnight camps and other high-risk settings.<\/p>\n

In Montezuma County, two active outbreak areas were reported by CDPHE.<\/p>\n

The Madison House assisted-living facility reported June 22 that eight residents and three staff had tested positive.<\/div>\n
The Valley Inn skilled nursing home reported June 24 that five staff had tested positive.<\/div>\n

In La Plata County, four current active outbreaks were reported.<\/p>\n

Colvig Summer Camps reported June 8 that 16 staff and two attendees had tested positive.<\/div>\n
Cottonwood Inn Rehab and Extended Care Center reported June 3 that 11 staff had tested positive.<\/div>\n
Espero Supportive Housing reported June 7 that four residents and one staff had tested positive.<\/div>\n
Junction Creek Health and Rehabilitation Center reported June 10 that three residents and nine staff had tested positive.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Montezuma and La Plata counties have high vaccination rate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,21,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39392","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=39392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84321,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39392\/revisions\/84321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39392"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}