GRAND JUNCTION — Dr. Rachel LaCount grasped a metal hoop at a playground and spun in circles with her 7-year-old son, turning the distant mesas of the Colorado National Monument into a red-tinged blur. LaCount has lived in this western Colorado city of 64,000 nearly her whole life. As a hospital pathologist, she knows better […]
coronavirus variant
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
What to know about vaccine-related heart issues and other insights on the coronavirus vaccine and kids
These are trying times for Colorado’s parents. The coronavirus pandemic still rages for those who are not vaccinated, now driven by the most transmissible form of the virus the state has ever seen. Vaccination rates are ticking up across the state. But vaccines are not available for kids under the age of 12, and, for […]
Posted inCOVID, News
The Delta coronavirus variant is exploding across Colorado. That’s bad news for unvaccinated people.
Infections from a dangerous new coronavirus variant are surging across Colorado, causing health officials to amp up the urgency in their messages for people to get vaccinated. The Delta variant, which is believed to have originated in India and is also known as the B.1.617.2 variant, was first identified in Colorado in late April. By […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Littwin: Biden is sending a half-billion vaccine doses to desperate countries around the world, but can’t give them away at home
For those of you fully vaccinated, please join me in a little experiment. It won’t take long. Take a fork or a set of keys or, I don’t know, maybe your kid’s Mechagodzilla and stick it to your forehead. Or a spare cheek. Or maybe your pinky finger. If the piece of metal falls off, […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
Cases of coronavirus variant from India nearly tripled in less than a week in Mesa County
GRAND JUNCTION — Health officials in Colorado have reported the number of infections from the COVID-19 variant from India nearly tripled in less than a week in Mesa County, the only county in the state with reported variant cases. Mesa County Public Health Director Jeff Kuhr told county commissioners on Monday that the county, which […]
Posted inCOVID, News
Here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus variants circulating in Colorado
State health officials have identified yet another variant form of the coronavirus spreading in Colorado, bringing the number of variants that the state is watching to at least five. The latest is the B.1.617.2 variant, which appears to have originated in India. It was discovered in five cases this week in Mesa County. None of […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
Colorado’s fourth coronavirus wave will be different from the first three. Here’s why it’s still a concern.
Hard as it may be to believe after so many months, Colorado is again on an uphill climb of the coronavirus roller coaster. But this fourth wave — the first three were the initial surge last spring, a smaller bump around the Fourth of July and the big spike in late-fall and early-winter — will […]
Posted inCOVID, News
Three cases of South African coronavirus variant found in Colorado prison
Colorado health officials announced Sunday night that they have discovered the first three cases in the state of the worrisome South African coronavirus variant. The cases were found in samples taken from an outbreak at the Buena Vista Correctional Complex in Chaffee County. The samples came from two staff members and one inmate. They were […]
Posted inCOVID, News
Coronavirus variants aren’t new to Colorado – the virus has been changing since before it arrived here
Late in 2019, likely somewhere in the Chinese city of Wuhan, what would come to be called the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infected its first human being — and began replicating. By the time the year was out, the genetic family tree of that original virus’ descendants had already split into two branches. Once settled into Europe, […]
Posted inCOVID, News
Cases of the B.1.1.7. coronavirus variant continue to rise in Colorado – but aren’t cause for concern, yet
The new coronavirus variant first identified in the United Kingdom has firmly taken root in Colorado, with the state reporting 41 cases so far. But one of Colorado’s top health officials said Wednesday that there is not yet cause for alarm in the spread of the variant, as overall COVID-19 cases in the state continue […]