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Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19)
Click here to open in a new window. Or go to: https://bit.ly/DeltaCOVID19Dashboard
Six strategies being used to reduce the impacts of COVID-19 in Delta County
- Disease Investigation
- COVID Testing
- Keeping Schools Open
- Partnering with Business
- Sharing Information
- Supporting Healthcare
Disease Investigation:
Public Health is the lead organization for community-based disease investigation and control. Through partnership with other health and medical organizations, support from elected and municipal officials and institutions, health officials can limit the spread of a disease, and reduce its impact on a community. What can you do? Stay home if you are ill, get tested, and most importantly get vaccinated! Visit our Immunizations page for more information.
COVID Testing:
Testing keeps schools open and businesses open by identifying cases earlier and decreasing the chances that someone will unknowingly spread the virus reduces transmission in our community. Click here to learn more about the part testing plays in an overall COVID-19 prevention strategy. For more information on how and where to get tested, click here.
Keeping Schools Open:
The basic belief that having children IN the classroom is far better for our community is what drives this partnership between the Delta County School District and the Delta County Health Department. Parents help by keeping their children home when they are sick (isolation), or when they’ve been in contact with a known COVID-19 case (quarantine). For more on how you can Keep our Schools Open, click here.
Partnering with Business (Partnership for a COVID-Free Delta County):
In the weeks to come businesses in each of the jurisdictions will be receiving recognition (as a part of the Partnership for a COVID-Free Delta County) for how they support keeping COVID-19 numbers down in Delta County, protect our most vulnerable populations, and contribute to a thriving economy even in the most stringent of COVID-19 restrictions. As more information is developed, it will be added to our Partnering with Business page.
Sharing Information:
Providing up-to-date and accurate health information to the community through all the ways people like to receive it is a basic public health priority: print media (like the Delta County Independent), social media (like Facebook), and our website (www.deltacountyhealth.org). Data drives what we do: visit bit.ly/DeltaCOVID19Dashboard.
Supporting Healthcare:
A surge is what we call a demand for health care resources in excess of supply. Some of our shortcomings as a rural health care system are lack of staff, facilities, and supplies, and adequate leverage in the face of larger and better-financed systems. Working together to bulk-purchase, relying on our partnerships for testing, vaccination, data-tracking and staffing to meet the needs of Delta County residents, including activation of emergency support through our county and state emergency management organizations help us to meet the surge head-on.
*NEW* Safer at Home Level 1 Quick Reference
*NEW* HOLIDAY Gatherings and TRAVEL Guidance: HOLIDAY GUIDANCE
*Halloween Guidelines* Click HERE
Event Gatherings
Private gatherings: are groups of people meeting together such as a family gathering, book club, club meeting, etc. Under the 4th Amended Public Health Order, these gatherings should be capped at 10 people (and two households). Group Gatherings such as a church picnic are limited to 50 persons. They may meet in a park pavilion with 6-feet social distancing, face masks, sanitizing, hand washing etc. without an approved plan unless they have over 50 people, then they need a plan reviewed and approved by the Health Department. See the event plan application for more information.
Events - are assemblies that will attract the public. They are planned by an organizer such as the Chamber, Grand Mesa Arts Council or the Pondy Cancer Warriors, etc. They are limited for up to 250 participants outdoors and up to 175 participants indoor provided that they have a plan submitted to the Health Department three (3) weeks before the event if they plan to have over 50 participants. See the event plan application for more information.
Event organizer or parks departments are asked to provide COVID safety guidance to everyone who reserves the park pavilion or rooms in a facility. Also, please post posters in the facility to remind people to follow safe practices.
Delta County COVID-19 Variance
Delta County’s variance request dated June 8, 2020, was approved for the following:
- Confined indoor space: 50% of posted occupancy, ensuring 28 square feet distancing, up to 175 individuals
- Outdoor space: up to 250 individuals
- Delta County Public Libraries may reopen at 50% capacity or 50 people per building; whichever is less
- Delta County museums may reopen at 50% capacity or 50 people per building; whichever is less
- Competitive events permitted up to 50 people gathered
- Youth/adult sports up to 50 individuals outdoors or 10 indoors
- Trails and conservation crews up to 25 people
Colorado COVID-19 Response
*NEW* Effective October 23rd, 2020, Colorado’s Safer at Home Revised Public Health Order took effect. The Order: THIRD AMENDED PUBLIC HEALTH ORDER 20-35 SAFER AT HOME DIAL. The Summary of changes is:
p. 4 Section II.A: clarified that counties are not limited to being moved only one level at a time in the dial and that CDPHE reserves the right to move counties in the dial more quickly than the timeframes outlined as circumstances warrant.
p. 5, 6 and 8 Section II.B, C, and D: reduced the gathering size limit in Level 1 to no more than 10 people, clarified in all 3 levels that gatherings should not exceed more than 2 households, and clarified that the person caps in restaurants, houses of worship, and indoor/outdoor events exclude staff. (NOTE: please read this as a recommendation only of how to reduce gathering sizes- the health department does not regulate private/family gatherings.)
p 10 Section III.B: clarified that critical businesses and government functions should follow their sector guidance unless doing so does not allow them to provide the critical need.
p. 21 Section IV.C.15: clarified that elections operations include activities at voter services and polling centers and other locations where elections activities occur, as well as including the act of voting by a voter.
Effective September 15, 2020, Colorado’s Safer at Home (see PUBLIC HEALTH ORDER 20-35 SAFER AT HOME DIAL) consists of three levels that counties qualify for based on meeting three specific metrics. Click here to see the statewide dashboard. If a county falls out of compliance with one or more of the metrics associated with that level, it will have two weeks to develop and implement mitigation strategies to get back into compliance with the metric. Currently, Delta County is in the “Safer Level 1: Cautious” category. Click here to see the Delta COVID-19 Community Dashboard that displays the current data for Delta County, or go to http://bit.ly/DeltaCovid19Dashboard.
Colorado is currently in Level 2: Safer at Home and in the Vast, Great Outdoors. While we are all still safer at home, we are also able to practice greater social distancing in our vast outdoors than in confined indoor spaces. Much of Colorado is now open with restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and protect those at highest risk for severe illness. People should be prepared for state and local public health orders to be extended, amended, or changed as needed to protect public health. See the Colorado Executive and Health Orders related to COVID-19 for up-to-date information.
Executive Order D 2020 142 was signed July 21, 2020, which suspends the sale of alcohol from licensed facilities after 10:00 p.m., instead of the previous cap of 2:00 a.m. This order is in effect for 30 days. This order was later amended to exempt retail liquor stores from the 10:00 p.m. sale suspension.
On July 16, 2020, Governor Polis signed Executive Order D 2020 138 ordering individuals over 10 years of age in Colorado to wear a face-covering when entering or moving within a public indoor space, including any enclosed indoor area that is publicly or privately owned, managed, or operated to which individuals have access by right or by invitation, expressed or implied, and that is accessible to the public, serves as a place of employment, or is an entity providing services. Public indoor space does not mean a person’s residence, including a room in a motel or hotel or a residential room for students at an educational facility.
Governor Polis in his press conference of June 30, 2020, announced that all bars and nightclubs are to be closed once again for in-person service. Bars will continue to be able to sell take-out alcohol. Bars that now serve food, and function as a restaurant, can stay open for in-person service with the following requirements:
- Patrons MUST be 6 feet apart.
- Patrons are seated with their own party.
- No mingling is allowed.
Additional Links
- Supporting Healthcare web page.
- Delta County Memorial Hospital COVID-19 web page.
- For regional resources, visit Mesa County Health Department’s web page.
- Colorado Department of Health and Environment COVID-19 website.
- Colorado Executive and Health Orders related to COVID-19.
- Colorado Department of Labor and Employment: Information and resources regarding sick leave and unemployment for employees affected by COVID-19.
- Centers for Disease Control website.