The increased spread of the coronavirus threatens to overwhelm El Paso County hospitals and has reversed the progress made when the county closed many businesses and most residents were quarantined in their homes, the medical director said Tuesday. Deputy Leon Kelly to County Commissioners.
“How many people is the correct number of people who die to do something about it?” Kelly said during the presentation emphasizing that the county is running out of options when it comes to fighting the virus.
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Kelly asked residents to take preventive measures, such as wearing masks and social distancing.
About 7% of patients examined in El Paso County have the virus. That’s lower than the measure in some states, but well above targets.
The overall ideal for the positive case rate is 5%. Some states in the most serious circumstances, such as Arizona, have a rate as high as 14.2%.
If the county does not slow the rapid spread of the virus, state exemptions to allow larger gatherings in places like churches and restaurants could be repealed.
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Hospitalizations are on the rise in El Paso County and a hospital system is concerned that it may handle two new ICU patients each day before overloading becomes a problem. If the current rate of hospitalizations continues, Kelly said that within two weeks UC Health would have to stop administering elective surgeries.
Another weak link Kelly cited is contact tracing, which has been reduced because the responsibility for contact tracing has increasingly shifted to the state rather than locally.
Test times have also played a role as the time to receive results slows down as state labs are flooded with tests and private labs, which also handle regional tests from other states.
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Kelly urged people to increase preventive measures by continuing outside, washing hands, distancing themselves socially, quarantining if sick, and wearing face masks, which can reduce the infection rate by 79% if worn by a sick person. .
“This is a call to action for our county, we must step it up,” said Susan Wheelan, El Paso County Director of Public Health. “We have to practice prevention measures, it is not a prevention measure, it is all of them combined.”
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