SM County: Delta Causing Big Spike in Wastewater/Positivity Rate!

19 Aug SM County: Delta Causing Big Spike in Wastewater/Positivity Rate!

San Miguel County puts out the word: Proactive preventative measures strongly recommended for all.

For corona vaccine info, visit here.

For up-to-date coronavirus information, visit here.

For free coronavirus testing opportunities, visit here.

For all Covid blogs from San Miguel County, go here.

Grace Franklin, County Public Health Director.

San Miguel County Public Health has detected a notable increase in COVID presence in the community similar to that of January 2021 through recent wastewater sampling. As the sampling data predicted in July, cases continue to climb week-over-week as the Delta variant makes up the entirety of the last three samples.

“We knew the risks of the Delta variant when we began tracking it weeks ago,” said Public Health Director Grace Franklin. “We are now reaching unmanageable levels of disease prevalence in our communities and must take immediate action to curb transmission rates. This includes wearing masks indoors, limiting group size and reverting to our pandemic pod mentality.”

On July 27, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that everyone in areas with high COVID infection rates wear masks in public indoor spaces, regardless of whether they are vaccinated. The CDC specifically called upon students, teachers, and staff in K-12 schools to wear masks given high transmissibility and vaccination limitations for those age

“A year ago, these positivity and incidence rates would have put the county in Level Red,” said Public Health Director Grace Franklin. “The vaccine works really well for severe outcomes, but it’s not the sole remedy to ending the pandemic. The time is now to proactively change our behavior to prevent the continued spread to vaccinated and unvaccinated people.”

San Miguel County’s Board of Health has begun evaluating current disease burden and caseload data to determine whether proactive preventative mandates would be suitable in the coming weeks.

Public Health has updated the COVID dashboard to include variant prevalence information to better inform the public of the details surrounding wastewater and case data. Vaccine and testing opportunities can be found on the SMC COVID webpage.

Public Health has confirmed 20 new positive cases of COVID-19 from test results received from August 13 through 18. Of these cases, 16 are confirmed as East End residents; one is confirmed as a West End resident. As of release time today, there are 17 active cases, all actively contagious cases are currently in isolation.

72-year-old male, nonresident, symptomatic, travel
55-year-old female, resident, symptomatic, social
55-year-old male, resident, symptomatic
54-year-old female, resident, symptomatic, community
50-year-old male, resident, symptomatic, social
49-year-old female, resident, symptomatic, community
47-year-old male, resident
33-year-old male, resident, symptomatic, household
33-year-old male, resident, symptomatic, social
32-year-old female, resident, symptomatic, workplace
32-year-old female, resident, symptomatic, household
28-year-old female, resident, symptomatic, social
26-year-old male, resident, symptomatic, workplace
26-year-old female, resident, symptomatic, travel
23-year-old male, resident, symptomatic, social
22-year-old female, resident, symptomatic, workplace
21-year-old male, nonresident, symptomatic, travel
21-year-old male, resident, symptomatic, social
6-year-old male, resident, symptomatic, community
3-year-old female, nonresident, symptomatic, community

To-date, there have been 984 total COVID cases among residents including 41 breakthrough cases and one COVID-related death.

To learn more about the county’s current COVID-19 metrics, please visit the SMC COVID-19 dashboard.

Power The Comeback:

Crowded places, covered faces
Get vaccinated
Stay home when sick and get tested