The Cortez City Council passed a resolution Tuesday strongly encouraging mask wearing in public places after the Montezuma County Health Department and Southwest Memorial Hospital expressed concern about the rapid spread of COVID-19.
The positivity rate for COVID-19 in Montezuma County is 16.2%, and the total positive cases per 100,000 people was at 422 by Tuesday, placing Montezuma County at Level Red with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
At the Red level, the county would face a “stay at home” restriction.
As of Monday, Montezuma County reported a total of 318 cases and four deaths due to COVID-19 since March. The positivity rate over the past week for the county was 16.2% on 456 tests, which means 1 in 6 people tested were COVID-19 positive.
“All of the above numbers indicate a very concerning trend for the county and Southwest Health System,” Tony Sudduth, chief executive officer of Southwest Memorial Hospital, said in an email statement.
The state has not yet designated Montezuma County at Level Red, but a positivity rate greater than 15%, more than two COVID-19 admissions in a single day over the past two weeks, and 300-plus cases per 100,000 people would qualify Montezuma County for the designation, Sudduth said.
Once CDPHE processes the new data from the county, it is likely there will be new, stricter public health regulations, Bobbi Lock, director of the Montezuma County Public Health Department, said during a meeting with the Mancos School Board Monday evening.
Wearing a mask in public is a “small sacrifice to keep the economy going, keep our kids in school and reduce the number of outbreaks,” Mayor Pro-tem Rachel Medina said during the council meeting.
Southwest Health Systems pharmacist and infection control manager Marc Meyer said the hospital is concerned about employees contracting COVID-19 in the community.
If the hospital has four or five employees forced to quarantine, a department within the health care system in the county could be nonoperational, he said.
Wearing a mask to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is a “small thing you can do” to help limited local health care resources, Councilor Arlina Yazzie said.
Southwest Memorial is set up to treat mild cases of COVID-19, but patients who need long-term care are flown to Grand Junction or the Front Range.
If beds at the hospital are taken up by COVID-19 patients, the hospital is less able to provide medical services to someone in a car crash or with broken bones in the emergency room. Those patients are then flown to other hospitals, said Kerri White-Singleton, chief operating officer of the Southwest Medical Group.
Southwest Memorial was at 50% capacity on Tuesday, but “this changes rapidly, and we could very easily be full by the end of the day and we move patients in and out,” Sudduth said.
“For most of last week we were completely full in all areas of the hospital,” Sudduth said. Over the past week, the hospital averaged four to five COVID-19 inpatients per day.
Despite the rapidly rising numbers, there is still pushback within the community on wearing masks.
Allen Maez, chair of the Montezuma County Republicans, said during the public comments section of the City Council meeting that a mask mandate was “not necessary.”
City attorney Mike Green said the council’s strong recommendation to wear masks is not mandatory, and there is not a punishable enforcement of the resolution. But wearing masks will help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the community and avoid another stay-at-home order, he said.
ehayes@the-journal.com