Wanting to avoid last winter’s confusion, the Pitkin County Board of Health has identified potential COVID-19 scenarios and the restrictions that would automatically take effect should they actually materialize.
“I think we’re on the right track here and for those who are concerned that we’re stepping on liberties … no, what we’re trying to do is be thoughtful in advance of a potential situation,” Pitkin County Commissioner Greg Poschman said during Friday’s health board meeting. “So, we all understand where this is going to go if things don’t go our way.”
Poschman serves as chair of the health board.
The winter mitigation plan, approved by the board on Friday, keeps the county’s indoor mask mandate intact unless a business has signed up for the county’s fully vaccinated facility program.
“We have tools that we didn’t have last year,” said Jordana Sabella, director of Pitkin County Public Health. “We have vaccination and that is incentivized throughout this plan.”
Businesses registered in the county’s Fully Vaccinated Facilities Program do not have to require mask-wearing indoors if all of their staff and customers have shown proof of vaccination.
The indoor mask mandate will be lifted when the county’s seven-day incidence rate falls within the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention’s low or moderate transmission zones for 21 days. The CDC considers fewer than 50 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in a seven-day period as “moderate” community transmission and less than 10 cases as “low” community transmission.
As of Friday afternoon, Pitkin County’s seven-day incidence rate was 169 cases per 100,000 people, which the CDC considers “high” community transmission.
“We need to anticipate Thanksgiving, which is coming up in two weeks,” health board member Dr. Tom Kurt said.
Beginning Dec. 1, organizers for any event that anticipates more than 50 people attending must complete an event safety plan with public health. The event must require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test from attendees in order to allow them to enter. The public health department also will rely on businesses such as hotels to alert visitors to the county’s traveler responsibility code, which informs visitors of local rules and regulations concerning COVID-19.
The county received feedback from the business community concerning the proposed mitigation measures. Of the 68 people who submitted comments, 36 commenters opposed the measures.
“I would point out that 68 people is not really a valid number for sampling epidemiologically the population in Pitkin County,” Kurt said. “It’s nice to do the survey but I don’t really attach a lot of validity to that, epidemiologically and scientifically.”
In addition to indoor masking and event safety, the county’s winter mitigation plan would also impose capacity restrictions on business, but only if Aspen Valley Hospital had to suspend all of its elective surgeries to accommodate COVID-19 patients.
Should that occur, then businesses would be capped to a 50% indoor capacity, unless they are already participating in the Fully Vaccinated Facilities Program.
“How serious must it be for us to take that step? I’ve only done it once … in 30 years and that was earlier in the pandemic,” said Dave Ressler, Aspen Valley Hospital CEO, of suspending elective surgeries. “It is literally cutting off the revenue for the hospital that we rely upon … the analogy would be cutting off our air supply.”
"board" - Google News
November 13, 2021 at 05:00PM
https://ift.tt/3Df4Ocn
Pitkin health board solidifies winter plan - Aspen Daily News
"board" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2KWL1EQ
https://ift.tt/2YrjQdq
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Pitkin health board solidifies winter plan - Aspen Daily News"
Post a Comment