Yuma County’s own plan for “Safer-at-Home” orders still was awaiting approval from the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment as of Tuesday, May 5.
Representatives of the Yuma County government, as well as Yuma, Wray, Eckley and the county’s two hospitals had finalized a plan specific for the county last week. It was submitted to the Northeast Colorado Health Department.
The plan then was submitted to the state last Friday. The state then requested some additional information, which Yuma County Administrator Andrea Calhoon submitted before the end of Friday.
She said the goal was to have an approved plan early this week.
However, Calhoon said early today, May 7. there had been no word from the state since Friday afternoon. A meeting of eastern district county commissioners was held Monday, at which point Colorado Counties Inc. committed to helping the counties get their plans moving at the state level.
“Ultimately, we just hope to get to a place where our local healthcare teams and local government officials can begin assessing the Yuma County situation as it differs from everyone else,” Calhoon reported.
Governor Jared Polis’ “Safer-at-Home” executive order, which allows for more businesses to begin operating over the past two weeks, also had a provision allowing local counties to formulate their own plans. The plans could more restrictive, or they could be less restrictive. The latter requires the counties to submit their plans to the CDPHE for final approval.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Yuma County stood at nine as of the NCHD’s daily update Tuesday afternoon. The county was at seven one week earlier. The county’s first confirmed case was announced on March 18.
Overall, cases continue to climb in the NCHD’s six-county region, again mostly in Logan and Morgan counties, and even there the larger numbers are concentrated at certain businesses and the Sterling Correctional Facility.
As of Tuesday’s daily update, there were a total of 752 cases in the six counties, up from 640 one week earlier. (The numbers include all cases since the first confirmed one on March 18, seven weeks ago. The NCHD said it is unable to track how many have recovered.) Washington County was sitting at nine cases, two more than the previous week, and Phillips County’s number had been reduced to five but was returned to six (the same as last week) as of Tuesday’s report.
Sedgwick County still remains at zero confirmed cases.
The hardest-hit age groups are 20-39 with 297, and 40-59 with 263, followed by 60-79 with 137.
Morgan County, which had outbreaks at the Cargill meat packing plant and Leprino Foods, which shut down for some days, was sitting at 434 cases, up 351 from the previous week. Logan County, where the prison has experienced the state’s biggest concentrated outbreak, sat at 294 as of Tuesday, up from 269 the previous week.
Last Tuesday, the cases in northeast Colorado had increased by 407 from the previous Tuesday. The region’s increase over this past week has been 112. (Kit Carson County, Yuma County’s neighbor to the south, also has a significant number of cases.)
It needs to be noted that there has been a total of 22 deaths in the six-county region, 21 of them in Morgan County, and one in Logan. (Deaths are based on where it occurred as opposed to the deceased one’s county of residence.)
