{"id":43549,"date":"2021-11-26T23:06:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-26T23:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/covid-19-outbreak-detected-at-south-city-market\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:14:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:14:05","slug":"covid-19-outbreak-detected-at-south-city-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/covid-19-outbreak-detected-at-south-city-market\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 outbreak detected at south City Market"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Health
Health officials are aware of a COVID-19 outbreak that has infected nine staff members with south City Market in Durango\u2019s Town Plaza. (Christian Burney\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Another outbreak of COVID-19 has been identified in La Plata County, this one at south City Market in Durango\u2019s Town Plaza, according to the Colorado Department of Health and Environment.<\/p>\n

The City Market outbreak makes for the 10th active outbreak being monitored by San Juan Basin Public Health. Contact-tracing efforts by the health department have so far determined that nine City Market staff members have COVID-19. Of those cases, the majority of them occurred among unvaccinated individuals, said Chandler Griffin, spokesman for SJBPH.<\/p>\n

Griffin said the grocery store is considered safe to visit, and that staff members who tested positive or had close contact with someone infected have been quarantined and isolated, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that it increases the urgency among our team to do a thorough investigation and contact tracing,\u201d Griffin said.<\/p>\n

Other outbreaks being monitored by the CDPHE as of this week include: Bayfield Middle School (12 attendee cases), Cottonwood Rehab and Extended Care (one resident, two staff cases), Fort Lewis College women\u2019s soccer team (10 attendee cases), Four Corners Health Care Center (seven staff cases), Ignacio Elementary School (five staff, 12 attendee cases), Mercy Regional Medical Center (56 staff cases), Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (18 staff cases), an undisclosed social gathering (seven attendee cases) and Sunshine Gardens West Assisted Living (one resident case, one staff case).<\/p>\n

From Nov. 13 to Nov. 24, the local health department is aware of 408 new COVID-19 cases in La Plata County and 135 cases in Archuleta County.<\/p>\n

The health department continues to do contract tracing, Griffin said, and the latest outbreak data emphasizes the importance of conducting quick and thorough investigations to track positive cases, quarantine or isolate patients as necessary, and reduce transmission of the delta variant in the community.<\/p>\n

He said the pandemic still proves problematic for local businesses and essential workers. Although many businesses and employees have taken steps to make their workplaces as safe as possible, keeping up with COVID-19 and suppressing spread of the virus remains a \u201cstruggle\u201d for many.<\/p>\n

Mask use, vaccinations, booster shots and social distancing remain the public\u2019s greatest tools in the fight against COVID-19, Griffin said. He said continuing to use masks in public, whether one is vaccinated or not, helps protect essential workers and keeps the community safe.<\/p>\n

Griffin said the community should be using \u201clayered protection\u201d to guard against COVID-19, meaning wearing masks and getting vaccinated, staying home if feeling sick and getting tested if people think they have been exposed to someone with the virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the current surge driven by the delta variant, we\u2019ve been talking about the benefits of layered protection quite a bit,\u201d he said. \u201cThat means being fully vaccinated and getting a booster shot if eligible.\u201d<\/p>\n

All adults are eligible for boosters, and clinics have been set up across La Plata County to facilitate those.<\/p>\n

The delta variant, which Griffin said is the culprit for most if not all of the current cases locally, has a higher transmission rate than the initial COVID-19 strain. Griffin said delta\u2019s presence increases the need for layered protection.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might sound obvious, but if you have symptoms, it\u2019s really important to stay home, limit your interactions, get tested and wait for that result,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that if someone feels ill with a fever, cough or sore throat, and tests negative for COVID-19, that person should still stay home.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may have the flu or another contagious respiratory virus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Griffin said limiting other kinds of contagious respiratory illnesses will help strained hospitals and the local health care system.<\/p>\n

New variant emerges overseas<\/div>\n

Across the globe, a new COVID-19 variant<\/a>, B.1.1.529, was detected in South Africa and reported to the World Health Organization on Wednesday. On Friday, the variant was named \u201comicron.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffin said SJBPH doesn\u2019t have much information about the omicron variant yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re hearing is that it has a high number of mutations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The new variant has not been detected in La Plata County, but Griffin said other variants that emerged globally, such as delta, inevitably make their way into the community.<\/p>\n

He said the health department will share more information about the omicron variant when the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are able to provide more details.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for now, what we\u2019ve seen is that the same layered precautions that have helped reduce transmission throughout the pandemic, such as masks and vaccination and testing, have also helped our community when new variants have emerged,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is high transmission in our community, and it is a high-risk time for community members, especially those who are unvaccinated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Griffin urged again for residents to do \u201ceverything we can do\u201d to protect essential workers and to keep businesses open.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know everyone has been through a lot; this has been a long road, and we thank everyone who is doing everything they can to do the right thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meanwhile, a new variant of the virus rears its head in South Africa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2549,685,28,668,291],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-city-market","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-headlines","tag-public-health","tag-vaccines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43549","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=43549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85748,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43549\/revisions\/85748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43549"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}