Letter to Editor: Update on COVID-19

Dear Friends and Neighbors!                                                                                               3.30.20

All the sacrifices you are making now are to lessen the impact to our collective health in weeks and months to come. Thank you for practicing social distancing, working if you are required to, altering your business practices to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and for staying home and breaking the transmission of the virus. Thank you to COVID Seamstresses for learning more about safest materials for healthcare workers and making homemade masks!

We have all learned about essential services pertaining to COVID-19 public health orders and our personal version of what is essential may have shifted.

Elected officials, public health agencies, media, emergency managers, emergency medical services, schools, businesses, hospitals and providers are working to flatten the curve of the “peak” for this pandemic, which is projected for Colorado by late April to June, depending on social distancing adherence and availability of test kits. We are ramping up 30,000 hospital beds throughout the state, which means an increase of 244 in Southeast Colorado and ramping up from 9 ventilators to 41.

Practicing flexibility when volumes of information is coming our way is essential. We are required to be more fluid and embrace change, which is not always welcomed. We will get beyond denial, shock and frustration to help each other adjust.

The risk of COVID-19 is not at all connected with race, ethnicity, or nationality. Blaming others will not help fight the illness. Seeking and sharing accurate information will. Your local public health agency has the most up-to-date information about COVID-19 symptoms and testing. Contact Prowers County Public Health Agency: 719-336-8721, or follow Prowers County Public Health and Environment on Facebook. You can also find information at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to see what is going on statewide.

It is a great time to prepare for gardening and expand our self-sufficiency. Keeping our lungs healthy is critical. Exercise can help us relieve stress! Run, walk, breathe deeply. We will all look more feral without our hairdressers.

Here are some resources or updates you may find useful:

Colorado is one of the states with the highest presence of COVID-19 on a per-capita basis. Colorado continues facing a shortage of resources in addressing this pandemic. Governor Polis and Colorado’s federal delegation advocated for and received a Major Disaster Declaration for Colorado. Good news!

211 Colorado is looking for information specialists. https://www.211info.org/job-openings

Watch the governor’s webpage (https://covid19.colorado.gov/ ) for updates due to COVID 19, such as working to remove restrictions on auto insurance for drivers doing restaurant delivery. Colorado COVID business updates can be found here: https://choosecolorado.com/covid19/.

Help Colorado Now- https://covrn.com/ is looking for volunteers and donation to help at-risk individuals across the state get through COVID-19. The Colorado Relief Fund provides a general operating grant of up to $25,000 for community-based organizations in Colorado.

If you know of a business wanting to donate to the COVID-19 response, or needing recovery resources, here is the Colorado Business Emergency Operations Center.

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cobeoc/business-members-and-vendors

Thinking of you,

Kris Stokke

dba SE Region Generalist