As COVID-19 cases in the region continue to fall, Larimer County’s emergency operations center is being downgraded but will remain functional for any future surges.
During the Larimer County commissioners meeting Tuesday morning, county health director Tom Gonzales provided an update about COVID-19.
Things have been looking stable across the county, he said, and as of Monday only five people were hospitalized with the virus throughout the county.
The county’s hospital systems have seen about two admissions a week for COVID-19 and two to three recoveries a week for the past several weeks, he said.
Commissioner Steve Johnson asked about the epidemiological model used by the state, which shows an increase in cases in August and September.
Gonzales said it’s difficult to predict future cases, but it’s likely that the virus will spread more in the fall when the air is cooler and less humid.
People will have to be cognizant about social distancing, hand-washing and wearing face coverings, he said.
Larimer County clerk and recorder Angela Meyers spoke briefly about the June 30 primary election, urging citizens to send in their ballots ahead of time so they won’t have to vote in person. She cautioned that the voting process will take longer this year because of the pandemic.
“We will be delayed in our processes by social distancing all across the board,” she said.
People can go to votelarimer.org for election information.
In her update to the board, Lori Hodges, director of emergency management, said the county’s emergency operations center that was activated to prepare for COVID-19 will be downgraded Monday from a level 2 to a level 3 activation status, meaning that most staff members will go back to working in their own offices instead of the center at 200 W. Oak St. in Fort Collins.
The Office of Emergency Management staff will continue to work there, and all the services it has been providing will continue, Hodges said.
The center will be “trying to find the balance between the pandemic, which is going to go the rest of the year, and daily operations,” she said.
The emergency operations center will be kept functional throughout the fall in the event of another increase in cases. The supply chain for personal protective equipment is still very compromised, she said, and the department is looking into how to order supplies for the fall because delivery takes six to eight weeks.
The county will conduct a review to determine how to be better prepared for a similar event in the future, she said.
The commissioners also were told Tuesday that Larimer County has signed an intergovernmental agreement with Arapahoe County that will allow the two counties to share personnel from their assessor’s offices.
County assessor Bob Overbeck spoke briefly about the agreement during the meeting, and the commissioners signed the agreement.
After a disaster, county building departments and assessor’s offices are charged with working to determine property damage. Building departments already have an agreement that allows employees throughout the state to be brought into specific areas, but assessor’s offices do not have a similar agreement.
When Overbeck was elected, he started looking into creating an agreement, and Arapahoe County expressed interest.
At the meeting, Overbeck said the agreement is “groundbreaking” and will be a model throughout the state.
“It allows us to have more teams in the field so we’re not constrained by personnel limits,” emergency management director Hodges told the Reporter-Herald.
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June 10, 2020 at 08:14AM
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Larimer County Emergency Operations Center to downgrade as COVID-19 cases fall - Loveland Reporter-Herald
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