First and foremost, we want to acknowledge how hard this pandemic has been for all of us over these last eight months. We realize there have been many hardships faced by local community members and we know these are extremely challenging times.

Since the first of October we’ve seen a significant increase in local COVID-19 cases, mostly due to workplace outbreaks, social gatherings/parties, and household transmission. Since the first of the month, Archuleta County has added 14 resident cases, and La Plata County has added 143 resident cases.

As local and statewide COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations increase, we are urging all community members to take stringent public health precautions to prevent overloading our healthcare system and to control further spread of the virus.

We need to act now to avoid challenging peaks in infections and hospital demand over the next three months. The window to improve transmission control is over the next several weeks. Our community is at a critical moment and we need everyone to do their part.

We appreciate the diligent efforts of community members, families, schools, businesses, and organizations to control the spread of the disease which have resulted in lower case increases compared to other Colorado counties as well as strong economic indicators over the summer and fall months.

These efforts have also allowed for in-person learning in our local schools and at Fort Lewis College, with no outbreaks to date. In order to avoid increased restrictions taking place in other counties, all of us need to do our part.

Remember to observe important public health precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 especially as we head into the holiday season!

We sincerely thank everyone for doing their part to maintain the ability to keep all community members safe while benefiting from in-person learning at schools and to sustain a healthy economy.