by George Gramlich
The Custer County Department of Public Health has reported in a press release dated Tuesday, March 17th that the first “probable positive” case of the Chinese coronavirus (COVID-19) has been reported in Custer County. The person, a male in his 50’s, was
reportedly a contractor at the courthouse. From the press release:
“Custer County Department of Public Health is reporting the first probable positive case of COVID-19, or coronavirus, in Custer County.  Presumed, folks, until the test comes back.

The patient is a male in his 50s. The patient is working with public health officials in the ongoing investigation to identify people that may have had close exposure. The case is a probable positive, which means the patient has been in close contact with a known positive COVID-19 patient and is experiencing symptoms that are consistent with the disease. At this time, we are awaiting testing capabilities to confirm the diagnosis.
Local health and medical partners have acknowledged that the arrival of COVID-19 to Custer County was a matter of when versus if. As a result, they have been planning what a local response would look like as well as running through
different scenarios.
There is currently no vaccine or treatment for COVID-19. Custer County Public Health and its partners will focus their response
efforts on slowing the spread of the disease, which will require the community’s assistance. Although more than 80% of people who have contracted COVID-19 have relatively mild illness, there are greater risks for complications among older
adults, especially above the age of 60 years, as well as people with pre-existing health conditions.”
In addition, the Sentinel has received a copy of an email sent out by the Valley Bible Church that noted the infected individual attended church service there on Sunday, March 1st, potentially exposing dozens and dozens of people.
In a separate press release dated the same day, the Custer County Department of Public Health announced that the courthouse will be closed effective March 17th, at 4 p.m. through April 1st except for “essential personnel”. The release noted that all other county buildings will remain open including the Sheriff’s Office, VSO, Road and Bridge, SAR and Public Health.
You can call this a hoax or a pandemic but this is the time to err on the side of caution as this thing is highly contagious, and from the dozens of sources I have researched, it has a higher death rate than the regular strains of the flu. There is also a fair amount of data suggesting that the severe infection/pneumonia death rate is a lot higher for those 60 years of age and older, and
especially those who have health issues. Plus, there is no vaccine or known, available medicinal cure.
The strategy behind closing all these businesses and offices is to try to minimize the number of people infected at any one point in time and try to spread out or flatten the infection curve in order to minimize the severity of the societal shutdown. This also will reduce the load on the the medical support community.
So, as you have heard incessantly, over the last week or so, stay home for the next two to four weeks and monitor the overall situation.
Locally, the Custer County Commissioners have declared a state of emergency (see here). There are no conditions attached to this declare. It is just a bureaucrat, pro forma act to set the county up for any state or federal aid or assistance.

As of March 18th, there are no known cases in Fremont County. Northwest of us, Gunnison County has been declared a “hot spot” while El Paso County has multiple cases with one death (an 80-year-old person with other health issues).
Custer County School Superintendent Mike McFalls has announced that the school will be closed until April 6th. They are working on getting a takeout lunch program going. [Gov Polis has extended this to April 17 as of 4 p.m. March 18th]
Governor Polis has prohibited all indoor/outdoor dining closed in all Colorado restaurants for 20 days but they may serve takeout. The West Custer County Library is closed. The Theater is closed. County [courthouse closed], and the towns of Westcliffe [closed] and Silver Cliff remain open.

The following Custer County restaurants will remain open for takeout orders:
Tony’s Mountain Pizza: Call 719-783-9300.
Silver Cliff Mountain Inn/Willies: Open for takeout orders 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Call 719-783-2688.
4Kings Bar & Grill: Open for takeout. Call 719-783-3331.
Rancher’s Roost/Bowling Alley: 719-783- 2147

Fremont County: The Cañon City Music and Blossom Festival has been moved to July. The city of Cañon City has closed all public buildings. Fremont County has closed all its offices.
Cañon City schools are closed until April 6th. [17th]

Statewide: Polis has closed all Department of Motor Vehicle offices.

The U.S. government has shut all Social Security offices.
Black Hills Energy says it won’t cut off people who are late paying.
The Colorado Department of Health & Environment issued a press release detailing the closing of bars and restaurants, etc. Included in this release is the following information on the implementation of takeout issue:
“Establishments may continue to offer food and beverage using delivery service, window service, walk-up service, drive-through service, or drive-up service, and must use precautions in doing so to mitigate the potential transmission of COVID-19, including social distancing.
Establishments may allow up to five members of the public at one time on the premises for the purpose of picking up their food or beverage orders, so long as those individuals are at least six feet apart from one another.
In addition, the order does not apply to grocery stores, markets, convenience stores, pharmacies, drug stores, food pantries, room service in hotels, health care facilities, residential care facilities, congregate care facilities, juvenile justice facilities, crisis shelters or similar institutions, airport concessionaires, and any emergency facilities necessary for the response to these events.