Latest Update: 11/30/22
Aspen Journalism is pulling together data from state and county websites, as well as from other news outlets. This webpage is updated every Wednesday by Laurine Lassalle, Aspen Journalism’s data desk editor.
If you have a tip you want to share, any suggestions, or you just want to chat, you can email the reporter.
What’s noteworthy in today’s COVID-19 data?
Garfield County has reported 52 new COVID-19 cases since last week. Eagle County has added 28 cases, while Pitkin County has recorded 22 cases since Nov. 23.
Currently, four wastewater treatment plants in the valley—Aspen, Snowmass Village, Basalt and Glenwood Springs—are participating in the Colorado’s COVID-19 Wastewater Monitoring project.
Snowmass Village wastewater facility had the highest load of virus in the valley with 277,000 copies per liter on Nov. 21. Glenwood Springs recorded 235,200 copies on Nov. 21, down from 246,000 copies on Nov. 17, while 121,000 copies were found in Aspen’s sewage on Nov. 28. Basalt’s latest record shows 45,500 copies on Nov. 15 after a peak of 604,000 copies on Nov. 1. Read our story about COVID-19 wastewater data to learn more. You also can find more information about the data in our “Wastewater Data” section.
About 18% of Pitkin County’s entire population and 19.4% of the county’s eligible population has already received their Omicron booster, against around 13-14% of Garfield and Eagle counties’ full population and 15-16%% of their eligible residents. Over 40% of the individuals aged 65 and older in each of the three counties have already received their second booster.
State vaccination bus will come back to Glenwood Springs on Dec. 1 and 4 and to El Jebel on Dec. 2 with the reformulated COVID-19 vaccine boosters, also called bivalent vaccines. (Appointments are required and can be made at this link.) Interested individuals need to be 12 and older for the Pfizer vaccine and over the age of 18 for Moderna. They also need to have received a primary dose series of any vaccine before getting this updated shot.
Pitkin, Eagle and Garfield counties’ COVID seven-day new-case incidence rates are all hovering between 60 and 100 per 100,000 as of Nov. 30. Pitkin County’s test-positivity rate is the highest of the three with 27. 8 on Nov. 30, up from 18% on Nov. 23. Meanwhile, Eagle County has the lowest rate in the tri-county region with 14.9%, up from 13.9% last week.
It is worth noting that the rise in usage of at-home tests and the reduction in free PCR testing in the valley are impacting positivity rates.
As testing sites in our valley have changed and more at-home testing kits are being used, Tracking the Curve is no longer reporting data on the number of tests by county. Please, visit Pitkin, Eagle and Garfield counties websites for more information.
Colorado has added about 7,500 new COVID-19 cases since last week.
The Northwestern region of Colorado, which includes Pitkin, Eagle, Garfield, Clear Creek, Grand, Gilpin, Jackson, Moffat, Rio Blanco and Summit counties, is identified as having an “Elevated incidence plateau” by the state, which means that COVID incidence is high but remaining stable. Last week, the state’s dial identified the region as “elevated incidence growth” which meant that COVID incidence was high and increasing.
Hospitalizations across the state are up from last week, with 440 people in the hospital.
There are now about 98.5 million cases and more than one million deaths in the country, according to the CDC.
- Tri-county Region COVID-19 Data
- Wastewater Data
- Vaccines
- Testing Sites (see Pitkin, Eagle and Garfield counties websites)
- Colorado COVID-19 Data
- Hospital Data
- Death Data
- Additional Data Sources and Media Selection
There are possible discrepancies in the data published by the counties and the state as they don’t necessarily use the same data collection techniques. Also, CDPHE and local public health departments may process and report COVID-19 data on a different day, resulting in a lag in the data.
What does wastewater data tell us?
Currently, four wastewater treatment plants in the valley—Aspen, Snowmass Village, Basalt and Glenwood Springs—are participating in the Colorado’s COVID-19 Wastewater Monitoring project. Aspen Journalism published a story about COVID-19 wastewater data and how our local public health departments are using that information.
The data collected by the Aspen Consolidated Sanitation District shows that the number of copies of the virus spiked in August at 832,000 copies per liter. But it’s on Jan. 6, 2022 that the Aspen treatment plant recorded its highest level with over 2.7 million copies.
Snowmass Village wastewater facility had the highest load of virus in the valley with 277,000 copies per liter on Nov. 21. Glenwood Springs recorded 235,200 copies on Nov. 21, down from 246,000 copies on Nov. 17, while 121,000 copies were found in Aspen’s sewage on Nov. 28. Basalt’s latest record shows 45,500 copies on Nov. 15 after a peak of 604,000 copies on Nov. 1.
What’s the local vaccination rate?
More than 4.5 million people have received at least their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Colorado so far, and approximately 4.1 million people are fully immunized.
According to CDPHE data, about 265,000 vaccine doses have been administered in Eagle, Garfield and Pitkin counties.
According to CDPHE, 99.9% of Pitkin and Eagle County residents aged 5 and older have received at least one dose of vaccine, compared to 74.7 % of Garfield County 5+ residents and 78.9% of Garfield County 12+ residents. That makes Pitkin and Eagle counties two of the four most-vaccinated counties in Colorado, along with San Miguel and San Juan counties.
There is still a wide racial disparity in vaccine uptake. As of March 28, 72% of white people and 41% of the Latino population have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine in Garfield County. That 31-point disparity has widened since Jan. 27, when 68% of the white population and 37% Latinos had received at least one shot in Garfield County, which was a 22-point gap. In May 6, when Aspen Journalism published a story on the vaccination lag for the Latino population in the region, 36% of the white population and 21% of Latinos had received at least one shot in Garfield County, which was a 15-point gap.
Seventy-five percent of the white population in Pitkin County has received at least one shot as of March 28, while 35% of Latinos have received at least one dose of vaccine. About 30% of the vaccines administered in Pitkin County were to individuals with an “unknown” race or ethnicity. In our last update in January, about 31% of Latinos and 74% of whites had received at least one dose. This means that the gap has slightly narrowed from 43 to 40 percentage points.
In Eagle County, as of March 28 as a share of total population, most whites (the data indicates 102% of whites, but not every individual gets counted in the Census) have received at least one dose, while 41% of Latinos have received at least one shot, which is a wider gap than 97% for whites and 41% of Latinos in January. It also bears noting that the state’s data on vaccine uptake by race includes large portions of individuals registering as race “unknown” — about 13% in Garfield County and about 15% in Eagle County, of all vaccines given as of Jan. 27.
Where are the COVID-19 cases in Colorado?
The state’s northwest region, which includes Pitkin, Eagle and Garfield counties, was classified on Nov. 30 “Elevated incidence plateau.” This means that “Incidence is high but remaining stable,” according to CDPHE.
How many people are in the hospital?
CPDHE is now updating hospitalization data weekly. During the week of Nov. 29, CDPHE reported 440 patients currently hospitalized for COVID-19 in Colorado. There have been more than 71,000 people who have been hospitalized for COVID-19 across the state since March 2020.
How many people have died from COVID-19?
There have been more than 14,000 fatalities due to COVID-19 since March 2020.
Since March 2020, eight Pitkin County, 37 Eagle County and 102 Garfield County residents died from COVID-19.
Different methodologies exist at the state and county level to count COVID-related deaths. Unlike the state, Pitkin County does not make a distinction in its total death count between deaths “among” cases and deaths “due to” COVID. According to the state public health department, while deaths “due to” COVID include deaths where COVID was the main factor, deaths “among” COVID cases include any deaths of an individual who tested positive for COVID-19 in the 30 days preceding their death. They may have died of COVID or some other causes.
Additional data sources and media Selection
Selection from John Hopkins Data is not included anymore as John Hopkins stopped updating its maps on Sept. 21, 2022.
Selection from The COVID Tracking Project is not included anymore as the project ended on March 7, 2021.
“MAP: Where Colorado’s coronavirus cases, deaths have been identified” The Colorado Sun
“Colorado Covid Map and Case Count” The New York Times
“Coronavirus tracked: the latest figures as countries fight Covid-19 resurgence” Financial Times
“Covid-19 pandemic: Tracking the global coronavirus outbreak” BBC
Additional Sources
City of Aspen Info
Town of Snowmass Village Info
Pitkin County Info
Pitkin County Data / New Dashboard
Eagle County Info
Eagle County Data
Garfield County
Garfield County Data
The Colorado Sun Data
Washington Post Data
The New York Times Data
ProPublica Data
The Financial Times Data
BBC News
The Denver Post
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Projection
John Hopkins University Data
nCoV2019.live Data
Worldometer: Coronavirus
Other Info
Aspen Valley Hospital
Valley View Hospital
Media Sources
Aspen Journalism’s Twitter list of local news outlets and reporters.
Aspen Journalism’s news-aggregation list, “The Bucket.”
The Aspen Times
Aspen Public Radio
KDNK, Carbondale
Glenwood Springs Post Independent
Vail Daily
Summit Daily
Steamboat Pilot
Telluride Daily Planet
Colorado Sun
Denver Post
Colorado Public Radio
Colorado Politics
More on COVID-19
