Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, our attention has turned to numbers – the statistics that inform the public health response, the measures of the pandemic’s impacts, indications of what the future might hold.
But more than numbers, every person’s life has been affected in some way by the pandemic. It has caused unprecedented social upheaval – restricted personal movement, closed businesses and schools, canceled traditions, and caused sickness and death – that will leave painful footnotes in our history.
Numbers represent a glimpse of those impacts and how life in Southwest Colorado has changed.
Here’s a look.
3,018: La Plata County’s first recorded case was announced March 23. But without enough testing in the pandemic’s early weeks, some cases were likely missed. San Juan Basin Public Health has reported 3,018 COVID-19 cases in La Plata County as of Friday.
8.8%: About 509,000 Coloradans are fully vaccinated, or about 8.8% of the state’s population based on 2019 population estimates. The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for a third vaccine, made by Janssen Biotech Inc., part of Johnson & Johnson, on Feb. 27.
6%: The city of Durango reported it lost 6%, or about $2.9 million, of its revenue from the city’s general fund in 2020. The fund, worth about $42 million at the end of 2020, is the largest in the city’s budget. Original projections were as high as 30% in the early weeks of the pandemic as city managers tried to prepare for different outbreak scenarios.
$574,000: La Plata County received more revenue than expected in one area, its lodgers tax (paid by guests of hotels and motels). The county budgeted an estimated $370,000 in revenue from the tax but ended up with nearly $574,000 in revenue. That’s a 55% increase.
27.4%: Durango’s crime rate increased 27.4% in 2020 for offenses like murder, assault and burglary. The increase might have been tied to low officer staffing and fewer officer-initiated contacts, which may have led to an increase in serious crime. The state also reduced jail populations because of COVID-19.
4: The La Plata County Sheriff’s Office bought four military-grade tents to help with COVID-19 testing and vaccination efforts, then spent numerous hours moving them from site to site. It’s one of many nontraditional tasks deputies took on to assist with the pandemic response.
218: The city of Durango awarded 218 business relief grants, funded by the federal CARES Act, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of public health restrictions meant to curb viral spread. In total, the city awarded $821,309.
30%: In-town home sales increased by 30% to 216 sales in Durango, compared with 2019. That’s also more than each year’s reported sales since 2010, according to the Durango Area Association of Realtors. Similar increases appeared around La Plata County. Some real estate agents tie the increase to urban flight prompted by the pandemic.
3: There are many variant strains of the novel coronavirus that cause COVID-19, but researchers have identified three variants of concern: those first spotted in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil. While many variant strains of viruses fade away, researchers are studying whether these might impact COVID-19 treatments or vaccines.
519,064: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 519,064 Americans have died with COVID-19 as of Friday. Research shows there are about nine bereaved for every loss, or 4.6 million people who will grieve for and remember those who died.
Within that number are the 37 La Plata County residents who died with COVID-19. Most of the county’s losses happened in one outbreak – the Four Corners Health Care Center outbreak – in which 22 residents died.
smullane@durangoherald.com
