Pitkin County’s COVID rate skyrockets as omicron spread continues across country

PITKIN COUNTY, Colo. — A day after public health officials reported the arrival of the omicron variant in Pitkin County, local COVID-19 cases shot through the roof, according to the latest county statistics.

And while the 145 cases in the past seven days as of Tuesday haven’t been confirmed as omicron and probably won’t be for two weeks, the quickly booming numbers in Pitkin and Eagle counties almost certainly indicate the presence of the highly contagious new variant, said Josh Vance, Pitkin County epidemiologist.

“We more than tripled case counts over the last seven days,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “The CDC just noted that the majority of cases in the U.S. already are omicron. It’s happened extremely fast.

“The quick and sharp increase is similar to what happened in South Africa, the U.K. and New York. It’s exactly what we’re seeing here.”

Eagle County had the highest incidence rate in the state Tuesday, and “truthfully we’re not far behind,” Vance said.

> Read the full article at the Aspen Times.

Eagle County reinstated a mask mandate Wednesday after their one-week incidence rate shot up from around 300 cases per 100,000 people to more than 1,000 cases per 100,000.

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