The COVID-19 crisis has hit some parts of Colorado harder than others, and of those places that seemed to have avoided the hardest hits, the most surprising may have been El Paso County, home of Colorado Springs.
That county briefly led Colorado in deaths attributed to the new coronavirus as a result of an outbreak at a bridge tournament in early March; The Colorado Department of Public Health calculated ten positive cases, fourteen probable cases, and four COVID-19 deaths related to the event. But in the following months, the statistics became much less dire, despite the lack of acceptance related to facial coatings among residents of the Colorado Center for Conservatism, which we noted in our May 27 field report “Colorado Springs tells FU to Masks. “At the time of that post, despite its first COVID-19 cases and sizable population, El Paso County was in the middle of the Colorado package in terms of COVID-19 cases .
What a difference a few weeks ago. During a June 24 press conference, Governor Jared Polis noted that El Paso County has recently experienced spikes of the new coronavirus, as have San Miguel and Eagle counties and locations in the San Luis Valley. It is now clearly one of the state’s viral hotspots, and if the trend doesn’t reverse, it could help Colorado join neighbors like Arizona and Utah, which have seen the number of cases rise to troubling levels.
The change is documented by an online tool developed by New York Times. Four weeks ago, El Paso County recorded 230 COVID-19 diagnoses for every 100,000 residents. Starting June 24, the Times puts El Paso County at 316 positives per 100,000 residents, an increase of 37 percent. And its seven-day average of cases is estimated at 25, well above the seventeen two weeks ago, hence the hot spot designation.
The former Mesa County (1.7 per 100,000 on June 24, 0.9 two weeks ago), Alamosa County (6.7 versus 4.0 two weeks ago), Pitkin County (1.6 versus 1.0 two weeks ago) are also trending in the wrong direction. ), Garfield County (6.3 vs. 2.7 two weeks ago), Eagle County (4.7 vs. 2.6 two weeks ago), Denver County (47 vs. 36 two weeks ago), and current Boulder County, who lives in the winery and happy to party (24 vs. 5.1 two weeks ago).
More details can be found on the El Paso County Public Health COVID-19 website, one of the most comprehensive and useful in the state.
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This June 24 chart shows the number of COVID-19 cases per day in El Paso County based on a one-week moving average.
Today, June 25, that site lists 2,208 cases in the county, along with 298 hospitalizations, 121 deaths, 1,805 patient recoveries and 29,061 tests to date, and the seven-day moving average for cases has been more unstable recently. The 57 positive cases counted on June 18 tied with April 8 at most in a single day, and the agency listed 44 on June 23.
Overall hospitalization figures in El Paso County remain low; there were three on June 22, but none on the following two days. Still, COVID-19 deaths, which have been gradually declining in most sections of Colorado, have exploded in recent times, particularly on June 16, when there were eight deaths, a tragic contrast to the period between on May 28 and June 15, when most days were victimless. There were also two deaths on June 18 and June 22, respectively, and one yesterday, June 24.
Another harrowing metric: cases per 100,000 residents during the previous fourteen days. El Paso County’s figure on June 24 was 41.6, a jump of about 40 percent from 25.77 on June 14. The highest point was 58.54 on May 28.
EPCPH also counts case rates per 1,000 residents for individual cities within the county, and Colorado Springs’ 3.87 is second, behind Monument, at 6.72.
This deterioration certainly cannot be attributed to a disinterest in wearing the Colorado Springs mask alone; There are certainly many contributing factors. But the spikes that currently appear are as simple as a nose on an uncovered face.
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