There are currently 74 active COVID-19 cases in the San Luis Valley, which is a drastic increase from the 19 cases we reported one week ago.

Although Dial levels have not officially changed  away from green for the region (due in part to the speed of our case increase), the current numbers now place our overall risk at the equivalent of Level Blue, verging on Level Yellow. Individuals, families, and businesses are strongly encouraged to take preventative measures such as mask wearing and social distancing, and get vaccinated as soon as you can. More local data is updated regularly at www.slvphp.com. All adults are now eligible to receive the vaccine. 

Teens ages 16-17 are also now eligible to be vaccinated for COVID-19. The only vaccine approved so far for this age group is Pfizer.The Pfizer vaccine has complex storage and transport requirements that have posed a challenge for many rural areas. We expect to receive some Pfizer vaccine on April 20th that will need to be used within 7 days. To sign up for one of these doses, please call your local public agency to schedule an appointment. (See the provider list at the end of this article.) Public health agencies in Archuleta, Chaffee, Gunnison, and Huerfano counties may be able to provide vaccines to Valley 16-17 yr olds whose parents are willing to travel and would like to have their teens vaccinated sooner. 

Rising COVID-19 cases in the San Luis Valley mirror the state of Colorado as a whole. Data shows that vaccines are doing well at protecting our most vulnerable community members. Earlier in the pandemic, most hospitalizations were in older people. Now the majority of new hospitalizations in Colorado are people under the age of 50. 

A recent survey in Colorado found that many people who took a “wait and see” attitude about COVID-19 vaccines have now decided they want to receive it. This is great news because higher vaccination rates will reduce risk in our community. Factors that contribute to vaccination rates include residents’ level of desire to receive the vaccine and easy access to vaccine providers. Demographics also play a role. For example, a county with a high percentage of residents over the age of 65 is likely to have a higher percentage of its population vaccinated at this point than a county with a younger population. 

Vaccines remain our best tool to end the pandemic, even as new variants increase in Colorado. We have not yet identified any variant cases in the San Luis Valley based on a sampling of positive tests that are checked for variant strains of the virus. It is likely though that variant strains will be identified in our region soon based on the trends we are seeing across the state.

We have received some questions about the county-level vaccination data published on CDPHE’s web page at https://covid19.colorado.gov/vaccine-data-dashboard. 

  • Last Friday, CDPHE added some new data, including the “up-to-date vaccination rate”, which shows the percentage of residents in each county who are fully vaccinated (meaning that they have had two doses of Pfizer or Moderna, or one dose of Janssen). 
  • “Doses administered” shows the number of vaccine doses that have been administered to residents of that county, regardless of where they received the vaccine. 
  • “Doses distributed” shows the number of vaccine doses that have been distributed by CDPHE to vaccine providers located in that county; this includes public health agencies, hospitals, clinics, and some pharmacies.
  • It is an easy mistake to assume that “doses administered” divided by “doses distributed” would give a number that shows the efficiency with which a public health agency is administering vaccines. This would only be true if public health were the only provider, and if residents could only receive vaccines in their county of residence. Neither of these conditions are true. Other factors are also at play, as noted above. 

 If you have symptoms of COVID-19, get tested through our regular testing providers:

  • Rio Grande Hospital 719-657-4990
  • SLV Health Respiratory Clinic 719-589-3000 ext. 9 
  • Valley-Wide Health Systems 719-589-3658 ext. 4 (M-F), 719-589-2562 (Sa/Su)

To sign up to receive a vaccine, contact one of the local providers below. Online signup links for these providers can be found at www.slvphp.com.