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Eagle County COVID-19 numbers dropping after surge

But local public health officials aren’t ready to lift mask order in local schools

Eagle County reported 81 new COVID-19 over the past seven days, down considerably from figures recorded in early September. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Eagle County’s COVID-19 numbers are beginning to trend downward after the recent delta variant surge, but local health officials say significant improvement is still needed before the local public health order requiring masks in local schools can be lifted.

According to the Eagle County Monitoring Dashboard, 81 new COVID-19 cases were reported during the seven days. That is a slight uptick from the previous weeklong period, when 73 new cases were reported.

Heath Harmon, the county’s public health director, noted the mask requirement in schools can be lifted if local COVID-19 disease levels drop below 50 cases per 100,000 population over a seven-day period. For Eagle County’s population, this means getting below 28 cases in seven days.



“Unfortunately we are still well over that threshold of 50 cases per 100,000 over seven days,” stated Harmon in a forwarded email response he sent to to a local resident this week. “I know that we aren’t where we all want to be yet, but this is an incredibly positive decline since our peak in early September.”

Between Sept. 1-14, there were 439 new COVID-19 cases reported in Eagle County. September 1 saw the second-highest single day positive number — 71 new cases — since the start of the pandemic. The only higher single day number was 86 new cases reported on Jan. 4, 2021.

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“Please trust that nothing will make the Eagle County team happier than the day that we finally get out of the Public Health Order business for good,” Harmon added in his email. “Eagle County’s high protective vaccination rate — 92% of the eligible population — combined with the natural immunity of those unvaccinated residents who made it through this last disease surge has made it very difficult for this disease to be successful in most parts of our community, and we are moving very solidly in the right direction.”

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