{"id":41733,"date":"2022-03-07T12:37:53","date_gmt":"2022-03-07T19:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-years-after-covids-arrival-colorado-in-best-position-officials-say\/"},"modified":"2022-03-07T19:37:53","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T19:37:53","slug":"two-years-after-covids-arrival-colorado-in-best-position-officials-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-years-after-covids-arrival-colorado-in-best-position-officials-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Two years after COVID\u2019s arrival, Colorado in \u2018best position,\u2019 officials say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Pfizer
Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines sit ready for use at a Dallas County Health and Human Services drive up vaccine site in Mesquite, Texas. (LM Otero\/Associated Press file)<\/span>onset<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As Colorado prepares to enter an endemic phase of COVID-19, state health officials say they are ready to scale up existing safeguards should there be a future surge of infections.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really are in a good place. The state is prepared for a winter wave, should immunity wane, if there is another variant of concern,\u201d Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Executive Director Jill Ryan said during a Friday briefing with reporters. She said the state is in \u201cthe best position (it\u2019s) ever been in with this virus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Case counts and hospitalizations have dipped to levels similar to those seen last summer as more people are vaccinated and many people achieved immunity through an omicron infection. As of March 3, there were 283 COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state.<\/p>\n

Health officials said they are prepared, however, to scale up measures like mass testing sites, contact tracing efforts and community vaccination clinics in the event of a future surge.<\/p>\n

It has been two years since Colorado detected its first COVID-19 case, on March 5, 2020. Since then, the virus has killed more than 12,500 people and infected approximately 1.3 million people in the state.<\/p>\n

But as case rates and hospitalizations rapidly decline, the state is focused on a plan to monitor and respond to any future outbreaks.<\/p>\n

The four-pillar roadmap, introduced last week<\/a>, relies on hospital readiness, surge planning, health care workforce expansion and engaging in federal government reform to stabilize the health care system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re at a point now where disease rates are low and getting lower by the day. We have high immunity from vaccination. So we are at a point where we can begin to look forward to the next step,\u201d said COVID-19 incident commander Scott Bookman.<\/p>\n

The state will also continue to respond to outbreaks in high-risk populations, encourage vaccinations, and stockpile testing supplies and personal protective equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the public to understand that behind the scenes, our teams will continue to move forward, preparing for whatever may come from COVID or any other communicable disease or disaster in the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

By \u201cnormalizing\u201d COVID-19 in the state\u2019s health care system, people who test positive can immediately receive treatment through a variety of available therapeutics that will reduce their risk of hospitalization, Bookman said. He said the number of those antiviral treatments the state receives each week is smaller, but he is optimistic they will become more widespread.<\/p>\n

The state will also continue its wastewater surveillance program to detect emergencies of COVID-19 in participating communities. There are 41 participating utilities that cover 55% of the state\u2019s population, and health officials hope more will join.<\/p>\n

\u201cWastewater surveillance is a powerful tool for monitoring not only the level of COVID-19 in a community, but also as an early warning for changes in the virus, allowing us to continue to watch for new variants of the virus without requiring asymptomatic people to seek treatment and testing,\u201d said state lab director Emily Travanty.<\/p>\n

Health officials still encourage people who feel sick to get tested, since it gives the state a good idea about how the virus is spreading, said Colorado\u2019s chief medical officer Dr. Eric France.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that COVID-19 is going to be with us for the foreseeable future,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s all of our duty to be looking for new COVID cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Newsline, visit www.coloradonewsline.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

killed more than 12,500 and infected about 1.3 million statewide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,685,28,668],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-41733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-headlines","tag-public-health"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41733","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=41733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41733"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=41733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}