Monument Health would like to recognize Mesa County Public Health (MCPH) for their dedication, countless hours of hard work, and coordination of our community COVID-19 efforts since the onset of the global pandemic. The staff at MCPH has done an incredible job and we as residents have benefited from their precision in planning, high level of collaboration, clarity in communication, and leadership over the past year.
Given the environment we live in today with access to instant, worldwide information on social media, accurate and direct communication with the public about what was happening in our community was more important than ever. To stop the spread of misinformation surrounding COVID-19, MCPH quickly set up an online community dashboard that provided the most recent numbers, reports, restrictions, and recommendations.
Mesa County Public Health coordinated daily with each of the area hospitals and worked as a team to ensure ICU beds were available to those who needed them most. Frequent joint press conferences were held with hospital leadership to answer questions and provide updates for anyone to watch live. By working together, Mesa County residents could access accurate information from the healthcare community and make informed choices based on the most recent and evolving public health guidance to stay safe and healthy.
As a healthcare partner, we witnessed MCPH bring everyone together while leading local initiatives to keep business open through the 5 Star Program, a program that was later shared with the Governor of Colorado and adopted statewide by CPDHE. Public health worked to keep our businesses open, our residents employed, and our community safe.
Every day, we feel lucky to live and work in such a great community, but the collaboration and leadership of Mesa County Public Health was exceptional at a time when they were needed most. We are especially grateful to their staff, for the hours they have put in and the way they worked with all of our healthcare providers during this time. Looking forward, we know that our community can work together to tackle anything and come out stronger in the end.
There is no way to capture what all MCPH did during this last year, but here are a few numbers to give you an idea of the community impact and why we are so thankful for their leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic:
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- # of tests administered by MCPH from date-date
- Our testing data is community-wide with 225,566 tests as of 4/22/2021
- # people tested positive
- 14,075 (as of 4 pm on 4/22/2021)
- # passed away
- Deaths due to COVID-19: 125
- # press conferences
- MCPH hosted facebook live and press events three times a week during the Stay at Home order as well as provided experts to other agencies including the City of Grand Junction, Colorado Mesa University for Facebook live events to inform our community. In addition, we partnered with local hospitals at numerous press conferences to inform our community.
- # staff working around the clock
- 100+
- # business in the 5-star variance program
- 600+ at the peak
- 300+ currently
- April 2, 2021- everyone age 16 and older is eligible to receive a vaccine.
- Total doses given: As of 4/21/2021
- 17,45,202 first doses and 41,494 second doses have been administered in Mesa County for a total of 86,696 doses.
- Approximately 67% of individuals age 70+
- Approximately 61% of individuals between the ages of 60-69 have received a first dose.
- Approximately 33% of the total Mesa County eligible population (16 years and older) is fully vaccinated, meaning they have received both doses in a two-dose series, or a single dose vaccine.
- # of tests administered by MCPH from date-date
For additional information, visit these Mesa County Public Health Links:
- COVID-19 Information: https://health.mesacounty.us/covid19/
- Vaccine Information: https://health.mesacounty.us/covid19/vaccine/