El Paso County Health Department reflects on one year of COVID in Colorado
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. -- Friday marks one year since Colorado had its first COVID-19 positive case, and the El Paso County Health Department says the months since has been much like a rollercoaster.
"With this disease, we've had three surges, if you will," Stephen Goodman, MD, Chief Data Scientific Strategist with the El Paso County Health Department says.
"The very first one started when the disease was first introduced. Then the second wave came to us in the summer time."
The first COVID positive case in Colorado came from Summit County -- a man who had recently traveled overseas and flew into Denver International Airport then went on a ski trip. By March 6, 2020, El Paso County had its first positive case of coronavirus.
Dr. Goodman, who has a background in infectious disease work, says no one could have anticipated what would come next.
"It was hard to even envision all of the societal changes and level of change," he says.
Dr. Goodman says El Paso County had around 330 positive COVID-19 cases in March of 2020. During the summer, numbers surged.
However, it was in October and November that Dr. Goodman says was so intense. The state and county are still recovering and coming down from those numbers.
"We had more than 700 cases a day," Dr. Goodman says.
Reflecting back on the last 12 months, Dr. Goodman says, for the first time in a while, the El Paso County Health Department has hope -- thanks largely to the quick distribution of vaccines.
"The super good news is that we have deployed multiple vaccines," says Dr. Goodman.
"In the history of medicine, nothing like this has ever happened. I mean, it's the most amazing thing."
The El Paso County Health Department shares it is concerned about COVID-19 number as Spring Break approaches, and urges the public to be careful.
This weekend, the county plans to administer the one dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine, and continue to administer the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine -- as they've done since December 2020.
