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Custer County’s COVID plan backfires

westcliffe custer county

CUSTER COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- During a Board of Health meeting in Custer County on March 3rd, the board voted to remove all COVID-19 restrictions and return to full business capacity with no countywide mask mandate.

The vote was two to one with Tom Flower being the sole board member to vote against removing the COVID-19 restrictions.

Custer County has had a COVID-19 positivity rate of 0% and no new hospitalizations, according to state data updated on Wednesday, March 3rd.

At that time, Flower said he wasn't opposed to removing the COVID-19 restrictions, however, he wishes the Board of Health would've waited a month. Despite this, Flower says he stands behind the Board's decision.

Now, three weeks later, Custer County is seeing a spike in COVID cases and hospitalizations.

On Custer County Public Health Agency's Facebook Page, they write, "we have 6 positive cases and 3 hospitalizations. Local and active monitoring is providing us the opportunity to react and update our COVID metrics more quickly than ever before. We are continuing our local and State contact tracing effort."

The rise in cases has been met with staunch critcism, with one Westcliffe resident, Willie Linda Britt writing, "Why our local officials think they know more than the CDC and infectious disease experts is beyond me. This is negligence. The guidelines are there for good reasons."

According to Custer County, in total 169 residents have contracted COVID-19. There has been one COVID-19 related death reported. As for vaccinations, approximately 2,389 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered. Around 5,000 people live within Custer County.

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Kerjan Donovan

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