COVID-19 surge in Mesa County

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - After a few weeks of seeing a decline in COVID-19 cases the health department reports there has been a drastic increase in the last week.

“There was a three-week period where our positivity rate was around five or six, but in the past week, that positivity rate has jumped to around 10,” said Stefany Busch with Mesa County Public Health. The county was experiencing a decline, but now we are seeing those numbers soar once again.

“Illness rates with COVID-19 as we know for the past two years have gone up, down and around,” explained Busch.

Busch explains that there is no way to predict what will happen next. They do have an idea of what may have contributed to the surge.

“But with this most recent increase within the last week. you know we did just have the holidays a lot of people came together indoors because it’s cold as well as to see family, friends and loved ones for the holidays so that could be a contributing factor to the spike we are seeing,” added Busch.

Joe Gerardi with Community Hospital says they’ve seen a spike in COVID admissions. “COVID visits coming through our emergency department. Certainly, a percentage of those being admitted, whether that be to our medical unit or intensive care unit. But definitely a bump,” said Gerardi.

Community Hospital is once again facing capacity issues. “I would certainly say; it’s safe to say we are at capacity. Certainly in our ICU and within a couple of beds full in our med surge unit. So very, very high capacity right now.”

Gerardi states that the full capacity isn’t all attributed to COVID-19 patients.

Well, there’s an admission due to COVID and a relatively high number we are seeing other admissions of varying sorts whether that be a varying sort,” said Gerardi. Hospitals continue to struggle with the number of admissions they are seeing related to COVID.