As of Sunday, more than 30 people had been interviewed, 16 people tested, 17 people quarantined and four people tested positive based on the contact tracing done after a COVID-19 outbreak in a Silverton business, which had been closed to the public.
Because the business had been closed to the public, limiting person-to-person contacts, the San Juan County Public Health Department determined it was not necessary to release the name of the business where the outbreak occurred, as no one from the general public had interactions within the business.
“If this were a restaurant or a retail shop, or an open-to-public, high-traffic business, we would need to get (the name of the business) out to the public because that would have been important for contact tracing. We would need to say, ‘Hey, if you were at X, Y or Z during this X, Y or Z time frame we need to see you for contact tracing. But that wasn’t the case in this instance,” said DeAnne Gallegos, spokeswoman for San Juan County, Colorado.
Two people associated with the business tested positive for COVID-19 and two others tested positive in the follow-up contact tracing case, she said.
Gallegos said contact tracing for any exposure to COVID-19 creates “an ever-evolving case” in which researchers will determine how far down the chain of personal contacts to continue to investigate for possible transmission based on the level of interactions people have had with others.
“It becomes a spiderweb with every new person you’ve contacted, you make a determination whether it stops there or whether it opens up a whole new slew of people to contact,” Gallegos said.
Because the outbreak occurred at a business closed to the public, with limited person-to-person contacts, Gallegos said the contact tracing was relatively straight forward and was handled by the San Juan County Public Health Department.
She noted a recent outbreak at a house party in Ouray County initially involved more than 200 people, and the Ouray County Public Health Agency required the assistance of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to complete contact tracing.
As of Sunday, the positive cases from the outbreak remains at four people – the same number announced Friday.
Gallegos said three of the people who have tested positive for COVID-19 are San Juan County residents and one person is a part-time resident.
When state data records the new cases, Gallegos said San Juan County will have five COVID-19 positive cases, two legacy cases and the three county residents who tested positive for the recent outbreak.
The part-time resident who tested positive will be recorded as a COVID-19 case in the county where his or her primary residence is located.
Gallegos stressed the best way to minimize the chances of transmission of the virus is to limit contacts with others, wear a mask, practice social distancing, and frequently sanitize and wash your hands.
On Friday, San Juan County reported the outbreak and that four people had tested positive for COVID-19.
According to state guidelines, an “outbreak” is defined as two or more cases at a location in a 14-day period.
[email protected]This story has been updated to clarify that two people tested positive at the Silverton business that had been closed to the public and two other people tested positive in follow-up contact tracing.
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