{"id":42939,"date":"2022-01-01T01:57:39","date_gmt":"2022-01-01T08:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/covid-deaths-increase-in-montezuma-county-outbreaks-reported-at-walmart-nursing-home\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:10:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:10:32","slug":"covid-deaths-increase-in-montezuma-county-outbreaks-reported-at-walmart-nursing-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/covid-deaths-increase-in-montezuma-county-outbreaks-reported-at-walmart-nursing-home\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID deaths increase in Montezuma County; outbreaks reported at Walmart, nursing home"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Southwest
Southwest Memorial Hospital offers a strong diabetes education program. (Photo by Southwest Health System)<\/span>Southwest Health System<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The rate of new cases of COVID-19 in Montezuma County continues to decline, but deaths have increased, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.<\/p>\n

CDPHE reported 95 new cases from Dec. 17 to Dec. 31, a decrease of 50% compared with the previous two weeks.<\/p>\n

From Dec. 3 to Dec. 17, 189 new cases were reported. The rate of new cases in November also declined.<\/p>\n

The two-week average positivity rate is 6.4% for the county, and 61% of residents ages five and older have been immunized with the COVID-19 vaccine. Statewide, 70% of those eligible have been fully immunized.<\/p>\n

Deaths from COVID-19 are increasing. Seventeen deaths have been attributed to the virus in Montezuma County as of Dec. 31, up from 14 on Nov. 29.<\/p>\n

Of positive cases, 54 died with the COVID, but the virus was not the cause of death. A month ago, 47 died with the disease.<\/p>\n

Health officials are concerned about the new, more contagious omicron variant, which spreads more rapidly.<\/p>\n

Omicron has not been confirmed in Montezuma County, but it is likely here, said Marc Meyer, director of Pharmacy Services and Infection Control at Southwest Health System, based in Cortez.<\/p>\n

Of the COVID-19 samples genetically tested Dec. 19 by the CDPHE, 91% were the omicron variant.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it spreads so fast, there is the potential for a lot of people to sick all at once,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n

The 25-bed Southwest Memorial Hospital has had five to seven COVID patients every day over the past two months, he said.<\/p>\n

There are 12 active outbreaks in Montezuma County, including two new outbreaks at the Cortez Walmart and the Vista Grande Nursing Home. CDPHE defines an outbreak of COVID-19 as five or more positive tests at a single location within 14 days.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 6, the Cortez Wal-Mart reported 15 staff members had tested positive.<\/div>\n
On Nov. 21, the Vista Grande Inn nursing home reported one resident and six staff had tested positive.<\/div>\n
On Nov. 5, Manaugh Elementary School reported four staff members and seven students had tested positive.<\/div>\n
On Nov. 5, Mancos Elementary School reported two staff and eight students had tested positive.<\/div>\n
On Nov. 5, Children\u2019s Kiva Montessori School reported three staff and nine students had tested positive.<\/div>\n
On Oct. 29, Mesa Elementary School reported three staff and four students had tested positive.<\/div>\n
On Oct. 22, the Cortez Public Works Department reported eight staff members had tested positive.<\/div>\n
On Oct. 8, Dolores Elementary School reported three staff and 10 students had tested positive.<\/div>\n
On Oct. 4, Dolores Middle School reported four staff and 31 students had tested positive.<\/div>\n
On Oct. 1, Cortez Middle School reported seven staff members and 37 students had tested positive.<\/div>\n
On Oct. 1, Kemper Elementary reported four staff members and 18 students had tested positive.<\/div>\n
On Oct. 1, Montezuma-Cortez High School reported 15 staff members and 29 students had tested positive.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

cases in county decline; 61% fully vaccinated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,21,28,60,445],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-42939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42939","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=42939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85511,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42939\/revisions\/85511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42939"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=42939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}