I see governors getting in line to open states completely and sooner rather than later.
As of April 10, La Plata County and Archuleta County had performed less than 200 tests with a population of about 115,000 – at least, if The Durango Herald and San Juan Basin Public Health are to be believed, which I do. Eight hundred more tests were to be made available that day with no real information as to who can be tested or when results can be shared.
We got our first case, presumptive, on March 23, which was later than the state’s first case on March 5; and we have had 44 cases confirmed by tests that San Juan Basin Public Health says are not always accurate, as of April 5.
While I am not a math teacher, I can tell that we are more than two weeks behind the Eastern Slope. Without any tests, we have no idea how many people may have COVID-19 here in the counties of Colorado’s Four Corners.
We know that San Juan County, in New Mexico, has more than 149 confirmed cases and Montezuma County has a dozen or more cases and two deaths. Archuleta County has at least six cases.
We are not ready to open up without accurate testing and far more of it.
Please don’t let the West Slope be forced to open before sufficient testing can be done.
Ann Perkins-ParrottDurango
