Teller’s COVID-19 Case Situation Improves; County Parts Way With Health Director

By Trevor Phipps

During the last few weeks, the confirmed number of new cases of COVID-19 within the county have slowed down. As of last Saturday, the county had seen a total of 1,169 cases of COVID-19 since last March and four deaths.

 

According to Teller County Administrator Sheryl Decker, the county no longer has regularly scheduled phone calls with the Colorado Department of Health and Environment (CDPHE) and the county remains safely in the orange level of restrictions. “I looked at the state numbers and the vaccination numbers and things are going pretty smooth,” Decker said.

“Our two-week positivity is back in the orange. Hospitalizations and the two-week incident rate are in the orange. Our positivity rate is in the yellow almost to green. And our hospitalizations are back in the yellow. Our cases are still going up and we did have another death.”

 

On Jan. 21, the new county commissioners held a special meeting where they reconvened as the board of health. The board parted ways with Jacque Revello, the director of the Teller County’s Department of Public Health and Environment. There was no reason stated for this action, with officials citing this as a personnel issue.

 

The board then reviewed three applications for an interim health director in this position until a permanent health boss is selected.

After reviewing the three applications, the commissioners decided to select Martha Hubbard who served as the director of the department from 2012 to 2017.

Hubbard recently has stayed connected with the community during the pandemic through her work in leading the county’s contact tracing team.

“We brought Martha Hubbard back out of retirement,” Decker said. “And it is going fabulously. It is a positive change. We all thank Jacque for her services, but the board went in a different direction during the board of health meeting. But as for the public and for the health and safety of our citizens, we are not missing a beat. They didn’t take their decision lightly, but they made a move they felt they needed to make to make sure that we handled the vaccine program in the best manner possible.”