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Colorado’s COVID cases keep rising. Now Durango’s public health agency is sounding the alarm.

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Colorado’s COVID cases keep rising. Now Durango’s public health agency is sounding the alarm.


Colorado’s COVID-19 circumstances proceed to rise, and one public well being company warned its constituents that they need to contemplate taking precautions once more.

San Juan Basin Public Well being, which serves La Plata and Archuleta counties, urged residents to verify they’re updated on their vaccines and boosters, and to contemplate masking in public in the event that they’re at the next threat of extreme COVID-19.

Concentrations of the virus in Durango’s wastewater have greater than doubled in 16 days, to ranges final seen in early February, the division mentioned in a information launch.

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Whereas fewer persons are weak to extreme sickness than had been earlier than, it’s nonetheless a good suggestion to take some precautions when circumstances are rising, mentioned Talia Quandelacy, an assistant professor of epidemiology on the Colorado Faculty of Public Well being.

“Stopping an infection continues to be actually necessary, due to the potential long-term penalties,” she mentioned.

Knowledge from the state’s wastewater monitoring dashboard confirmed ranges of virus corresponding to late December, when the omicron variant was beginning to take off, in Boulder, Broomfield and the Platte/Central system, which serves a lot of Denver and japanese Jefferson County.

The wastewater information makes it clear that infections are rising, nevertheless it’s not exact sufficient to say that the identical variety of individuals in Durango are contaminated now as had been in February, mentioned Quandelacy mentioned.

Since contaminated individuals shed the virus of their stool even when they don’t have signs, checking wastewater captures infections in individuals who aren’t getting examined. Nevertheless it’s additionally a “snapshot,” and could be skewed as individuals go to and go away a neighborhood, she mentioned.

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“It’s helpful to make use of as a proxy for that there are extra individuals getting contaminated,” she mentioned.

Statewide, circumstances elevated by about 31% in comparison with the earlier week, with 7,299 confirmed new COVID-19 infections reported within the week ending Sunday.

The proportion of exams coming again constructive additionally continued rising. Colorado’s positivity charge averaged 7.45% over the week ending Tuesday. Whereas that’s not practically as unhealthy as on the worst level in January, it does sign the state could not have an entire image of how widespread the virus is.

Lively outbreaks in Colorado nursing houses and assisted dwelling services, which have been bellwethers in earlier waves, rose by 33, to 98. That erased a couple of month and a half of progress. Outbreaks went down in faculties, nevertheless, and remained comparatively secure in different settings.

Hospitalizations of individuals with COVID-19 in Colorado rose solely barely, nevertheless, from 110 final week to 116 on Tuesday. The Colorado Division of Public Well being and Atmosphere updates hospitalization information as soon as per week, making it tougher to see patterns.

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Colorado is lucky that hospitalizations aren’t rising sooner, as they’re in some northeastern states, Quandelacy mentioned. It’s not clear if that’s due to some distinction in who’s getting contaminated — if the virus occurred to hit unvaccinated individuals or those that haven’t been boosted in some locations — or if it might mirror that the BA.2.12.1 variant is extra prevalent there.

It’s clear that BA.2.12.1 is extra contagious than its cousin variants, however thus far there’s not a lot information about whether or not it’s extra extreme or higher at evading the immune system, she mentioned.

Colorado’s nonetheless within the low class beneath the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s newer COVID-19 framework, which emphasizes hospitalizations. A lot of New York and New England is on the medium or excessive ranges, nevertheless.

“That’s actually suggesting that persons are getting sick, and sick sufficient to go to the hospital, in a few of these areas,” Quandelacy mentioned.

Nationwide, circumstances are at late-July ranges, in line with information compiled by The New York Occasions. Hospitalizations are up in all however 12 states, however thus far have solely reached early-July ranges. Admissions to intensive-care models for the virus stay close to all-time lows, although they’ve ticked up in latest days.

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On Wednesday, the American Hospital Affiliation and different well being commerce teams requested the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies to increase the COVID-19 public well being emergency once more. The emergency declaration offers well being care suppliers better flexibility, and permits individuals lined by Medicaid to remain enrolled with out having to show their eligibility once more.

“We perceive Individuals are annoyed with the pandemic and the associated ongoing public well being measures ensuing from it. Well being care suppliers and others throughout the nation’s well being care infrastructure are exhausted as effectively,” the letter mentioned. “We’ve got realized, nevertheless, that COVID-19 and its variants take full benefit after we let our guard down.”



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Colorado

Benton’s Tedeschi commits to Colorado State

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Benton’s Tedeschi commits to Colorado State





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Fans roast EA Sports' 'laughable' Colorado ranking in 'College Football 25'

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Fans roast EA Sports' 'laughable' Colorado ranking in 'College Football 25'


EA Sports has released several rankings for its College Football 25 this week, teasing the July 19 release date for the much-awaited new game. When the company dropped the latest Power Rankings Friday, fans argued on social media about this team or that team’s relative ranking.

Yet fans universally seemed to agree on one ranking: Colorado is not the No. 16 team in the country.

Recall the Buffaloes started 3-0 last season under new coach Deion Sanders, and some fans had illusions of a College Football Playoff spot. But reality set in, and the Buffs dropped eight of nine to finish the season.

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That is not what anyone looks for in a potential top 20 program. The popular College Sports Only X account noted, “EA Sports really ranked Colorado the 16th best team in “College Football 25″ after going 4-8 last season & losing 8 of their last 9 games.”

EA Sports has shared details about how it wants to make the game as realistic as possible, even having CFB 25 announcers such as Chris Fowler call every conceivable scenario that might happen in game play. Fans have pointed out some slight errors in the game thus far. For example, the Texas State stadium was rendered in the game without an upper deck.

But even with Sanders coming in and energizing Colorado’s football program, rating the Buffaloes 16th is a huge stretch. And fans had plenty to say on social media.

[College Sports Only on X/Twitter]





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Nurses at Rocky Mountain VA rally for more staffing to serve Colorado veterans

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Nurses at Rocky Mountain VA rally for more staffing to serve Colorado veterans


For Colorado ICU nurse Jordan LeBlanc, working at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center has been a rewarding experience because of his daily interaction with the veteran population.  

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“What could be greater than our veterans. They’re funny. They’re kind. They’re forgiving. They think that we know best, even when we don’t, but most of all they trust us,” said LeBlanc.

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It is that trust that nurses say they are pushing to protect, in the wake of what they say has been an ongoing hiring freeze from nationwide budget cuts to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

“We have 57 open vacancies that are frontline,” said Sharda Fornnarino, who is the director of the local National Nurses United at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA. “That basically entails the ICU, med surge, the OR, some of our surgical areas as far as the outpatient surgeries, SCI and our mental health area.”

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On Thursday, nurses from the medical center rallied across the street from the building in Aurora to raise awareness about their existing staffing shortages and the challenges they have faced being able to serve the veteran population because of this shortage.

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LeBlanc says often nurses like him now have to take on a greater patient workload and sometimes work more hours to do so.

“Our ICU specifically has been staffed at less than 85% of its functional capacity,” he said. “Right now, we’re at 18 bed ICU that only 12 of the beds are open. They’ve closed six beds because of staffing levels.”

Nurses say the staffing challenges does not just affect their morale, but it can also compromise the relationship they have with each patient.

“Any veteran or any patient within our system will get less than they deserve, less than the total dignity that each individual really deserves to be provided,” he said.

VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes responded to nurses rallying across the country, saying there is no freeze on hiring nurses and they are continuing to hire nurses needed across the country. Hayes’s complete statement is as follows:

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VA’s top priority is providing the world-class care that Veterans deserve, and we are committed to making sure we have nursing staff we need to deliver the soonest and best care to Veterans.
There is no nationwide hiring freeze on VA nurses, and we are continuing to hire nurses, as needed, across the country to ensure that we can deliver world-class care to Veterans. Over the past 3 years, VA has aggressively hired nurses nationwide – increasing our nursing workforce by 14,000 nurses to a total of 122,000 nurses, the largest nursing workforce in the country and in the history of VA. VA is also retaining our great nurses, with turnover rates currently at 3.4% – far outperforming the private sector. There are also locations where we need to continue hiring nurses, and we are doing that – as demonstrated by the below hiring numbers.
Partly as a result of these hiring efforts and our great nurses, VA is currently delivering more care to more Veterans than ever before, outperforming non-VA care, and Veterans trust VA care at all-time record rates.

The VA’s office went on to share statistics on what they say have been all time high rates of veteran trust in VA care and decreasing wait times. However, Fornnarino says any hiring has been to fill strategic positions, where in reality all vacancies need to be filled.

“I haven’t seen more of those hires come to the bed side,” she said.

Nurses also worry the VA will become more privatized if staffing needs are not met.

“When we don’t have the staffing, we have these beds shut down,” said leBlanc. “That means that our veterans go to community care, and they’re not set up to provide veteran served ethical care.”

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