Rio Grande County remains in yellow on COVID dial

RIO GRANDE COUNTY- Rio Grande County Commissioners and Public Health Director Dr. Bankole met with Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) Friday, Nov. 20, to discuss the current status of the county in regard to COVID-19 case numbers and whether or not the county would be moving into another section of the state’s COVID-19 severity dial.


According to chairperson John Noffsker, CDPHE representatives agreed to allow the county to remain in “level yellow” of the COVID-19 dial and would remain there at least until the Thanksgiving Holiday.

“CDPHE officials were very cordial with us and we had a decent conversation. We remain and are holding steady at 48 positive cases and two hospitalizations. That number could change in coming days where cases could drop off or even be added. It depends on how people handle the holiday and whether or not we see a spike in cases.”


Noffsker continued to explain that although neighboring counties like Alamosa and Mineral have been shifted to more severe levels of the dial, Rio Grande County is doing all right. “Most of our cases came from outside of the county, so CDPHE officials took this under advisement during our conversation on Friday. We, as a board, are going to do everything we can to keep local control over this situation and CDPHE has given us time to get things back under control.”


Noffsker stated that the Rio Grande County Board of Commissioners will take under consideration the economic impact another shutdown would cause and that they would do everything they could to keep businesses and the economy in the county open. “We need more accurate information. Some of the information that is provided to us isn’t as accurate as I think it could be. With the help of our new Public Health Director Dr. Bankole, we are going to try and accomplish that so future decisions will be based on more accurate information.”


“We have survived many pandemics throughout our history, and we can get through this one. The economic impacts of another shutdown could result in 70 to 80% of our businesses and restaurants never opening their doors ever again and we cannot have that. We have to wait and see what happens in the upcoming days but as long as everyone works together, we can get past this.”


For a couple of weeks, the county has been at “level red” on the “two-week cumulative incidence” dial that the state uses to determine the spread of the virus within counties. Governor Jared Polis added a new level to the severity dial on Wednesday, Nov. 18, adding a “purple” level to the dial for counties that are in the most severe level of COVID-19 positive cases and hospitalizations.


“We continue to work on contact tracing and are urging businesses, restaurants and the general public to keep following best practices and to do their part to slow the spread of the virus. We will be meeting again with CDPHE after the holiday,” stated Bankole.