GLENWOOD SPRINGS—The COVID death toll in Garfield County is now up to 16. County Coroner Rob Glassmire says 11 have been certified and five are still being investigated. He says between November 30th and December 6th, the virus claimed eight lives. “They ranged in the age group between 53 and 98 years old. Out of the 10 reported last week, there’s five males and five females.” Glassmire says there is still a discrepancy between the state health department and the county when it comes to reporting the accurate number of COVID deaths. He says sometimes the state reports a death before the county even knows about it. Glassmire says he asked the department how they know it’s a death due to COVID when it hasn’t been certified. He says they consider those “deaths among cases,” meaning the decedents had COVID-19, but did not necessarily die from the virus. Once their death has been certified, if the death can be linked to COVID-19, then the death is moved to the “death due to COVID-19” category.
Garfield County’s total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases sits at 2,683. 643 of those cases were reported in the last two weeks.
