El Paso County COVID-19 cases stabilize over last two weeks

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- El Paso County is beginning the week with a plateau in the number of coronavirus-related cases, according to the latest data.

New coronavirus cases had been rising fast across Colorado since the middle of June.

Data over the last two weeks shows there has been a fairly consistent plateau, with cases neither really going up or down, since about mid-July.

Tuesday marks two weeks from when a mask mandate was put in place, but because of how the virus takes time to incubate and how symptoms develop, there is a distinct lag in recognizing if it directly contributed to fewer cases.

"I think just looking throughout the community you can see some positive changes in the ways people are implementing that. We are pretty hopeful that has been a big factor in stabilizing our cases," said Kimberly Pattison, Communicable Disease Program Manager with El Paso County Public Health.

She says there are more factors that go into the rise and fall of cases than just the governor's orders.

"We know for one thing, not everybody is going to seek testing. We know that some people won't get tested until much later in their illness and we also know it can take some time for the labs to turn around those results and for those cases to be reported back to public health," Pattison said.

Although we've hit a plateau, our climbing numbers have still resulted in the county introducing a new cap on large gatherings in indoor spaces, including restaurants.

"The actions we take right now are going to determine what happens with that plateau. Is it increase from here or is it going to decrease from here? As long as we have infectious cases, we have to be vigilant about those precaution measures," she said.