Boulder County Public Health released a letter Wednesday explaining what the state’s updated COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan means to educators waiting to be inoculated.
The letter was shared just as districts began bringing elementary students back into the classrooms this week. County health officials also continued calling for people to follow public health directives, with case numbers anticipated to climb in the wake of the holidays.
Elementary students return
During the county’s weekly COVID-19 Community updates meeting for the public, St. Vrain Valley Superintendent Don Haddad and Boulder Valley Superintendent Rob Anderson both relayed their experiences having kindergarten through fifth grade students back in class, starting this week.
“We got lots of positive feedback from teachers and parents,” Anderson said. “The kids had a really successful day.”
Boulder Valley School District’s second semester plan is to send elementary students to school four days a week, with secondary students starting remote and phasing into a hybrid model. The St. Vrain Valley School District will follow a similar model.
“I had the opportunity today to visit some of our elementary schools — today was their first day back in person,” Haddad said. “The attendance rate was outstanding. We had over 90% attendance in the first two schools I visited. It really was one of those inspirational moments, where you see things coming back a bit.”
Through a partnership with Boulder Valley School District and COVIDCheck Colorado, a testing site will be available to staff, families and community members in the Boulder Valley district, according to an email from Anderson to employees that was shared with the Daily Camera. The testing site will be open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday at Centaurus High School, 10300 W South Boulder Road in Lafayette. To register or to learn more about the testing site, people can visit: https://bit.ly/2L8AhHk.
Status of vaccinations for educators
Jeff Zayach, executive director of Boulder County Public Health, released a letter Tuesday to provide an update about the status of COVID-19 vaccines for educators, following Gov. Jared Polis’ announcement last week to increase the priority on vaccinating people 70 and older.
“Based on current vaccine supply, we anticipate completing vaccination for moderate risk health care workers, first responders and adults 70 and older around early March. The state has instructed us to focus on vaccinating these critical populations first, before moving on to other groups in Phase 1B, including educators,” the letter read. “The state has made it clear that we cannot move to providing vaccine to educators without the state’s approval or we risk losing vaccine altogether.”
Health care providers begin vaccinating elderly
Boulder Community Health announced that it started giving out the shots on Monday to people 70 and older. Other local hospitals plan to begin vaccinating the elderly in the near future.
Kelly MacGregor, communications manager with SCL Health Good Samaritan Medical Center, said that SCL Health is working on a plan to open up vaccination to patients over the age of 70 “as soon as possible.”
“We will keep our communities informed when we are prepared to vaccinate that group,” she wrote in a statement.
The health service provider, which has a medical center in Lafayette, has been currently providing vaccinations to first responders and health care workers, based on state guidelines, MacGregor said.
Centura Health spokesperson Lindsay Radford released a statement saying that: “We are currently running a pilot program at two of our sites that is focused on individuals who are 70-plus. Longmont United Hospital is not one of those sites.”
Case numbers still rising
To date, Boulder County Public Health reported 15,433 positive or probable coronavirus cases — 100 more cases than reported Tuesday. The county’s death toll remained the same at 184 people. There were 51 people hospitalized as of Wednesday — two fewer than the number hospitalized Tuesday. During the meeting Wednesday, Zayach said that 1 in 92 Boulder County residents is infectious.
“We are very much hoping that any new cases that increase associated with the winter holidays and new year is a low spike,” Zayach said. “We were just getting back into the range of cases where we can do effective contact tracing for base investigation.”
Boulder Valley School District reported on its online coronavirus dashboard Wednesday that there were two positive cases.
St. Vrain Valley School District reported that there were 20 active cases, split between 13 students and seven staff members. The district has had a cumulative 567 cases, 389 of which were students and 178 staff.
Zayach said the county still has work to do to curb the spread of the virus.
“We are seeing some increasing numbers that are primarily associated with our Christmas holiday and we expect more from New Year’s,” Zayach said. “We are expecting that our cases will continue to increase a bit for the next few weeks.”
The University of Colorado Boulder reported on its online coronavirus dashboard that during testing Tuesday there were 22 positive test results. There were also 144 diagnostic tests and 438 monitoring tests conducted. There was no campus isolation space in use. Since the start of the school year on Aug. 24, there have been 1,748 total positive results; 16,296 diagnostic tests completed and 75,530 monitoring tests performed.
Across the county, there have been just over 6,000 COVID-19 vaccinations administered, Zayach said.
“The need far exceeds the supply, so we are having to work closely to make sure that we are coordinating getting the vaccine out and that it gets to our highest risk populations first, before it moves to our lowest risk populations,” he said.
Starting Thursday, Chana Goussetis, spokesperson for Boulder County Public Health, said that public health officials plan to post online data on the number of vaccines received by the county. The information will include the number of residents who have received a vaccine dose; the number of vaccines administered and the number of residents who have been fully inoculated.
Zayach encouraged people to sign up for the state’s exposure app, which can alert an individual when they’ve been in close proximity with someone who is a known positive. Instruction for how to sign up can be found on the state’s website at: covid19.colorado.gov/Exposure-notifications.
Statewide, the Colorado Department of Public Health reported that there are 349,450 cases. Among the cases, there have been 5,050 death and of those, there have been 3,986 deaths because of COVID-19. There have been 19,703 people hospitalized. Of Colorado’s more than 5.7 million population, there have been 2,195,311 people tested.
Boulder Valley active cases
BVSD elementary schools:
- Douglass: 1
BVSD departments:
- Culinary center: 1
St. Vrain Valley active cases
SVVSD elementary schools:
- Central: 1
- Eagle Crest: 1
- Legacy: 2
- Northridge: 1
- Rocky Mountain: 2
SVVSD middle schools:
- Coal Ridge: 1
- Lyons Middle Senior High: 1
- Trail Ridge: 1
SVVSD high schools:
- Erie: 1
- Niwot: 1
- Silver Creek: 1
- Skyline: 1
Other campuses:
- Thunder Valley PK-8
- Timberline PK-8: 3
- Central Administration: 1
January 07, 2021 at 10:58AM
https://www.dailycamera.com/2021/01/06/boulder-county-reports-100-new-coronavirus-cases-officials-send-letter-to-educators-about-vaccine-plan
Boulder County reports 100 new coronavirus cases; officials send letter to educators about vaccine plan - Boulder Daily Camera
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