April 2023 local-news archive. This article preserves reporting by Leslie Vreeland for Telluride News. The clinic, test-kit, vaccine, Medicare and antiviral details below were time-bound 2023 information, not current medical advice or a statement of current local service.
In the original report, San Miguel County Public Health Director Grace Franklin compared more than 1,800 people hospitalized in Colorado at an earlier pandemic high with 150 people hospitalized statewide at the time of reporting. Those are hospitalization figures, not infection incidence.
The original Planet file photograph shows a Telluride testing line in March 2020. It is not a photograph of the low-attendance clinic described in 2023.
The article said the Thursday clinic was the final free NAAT or “fast PCR” clinic after an average of one to two attendees per clinic over the preceding three months, with three tests a day considered a high day that winter and spring. It reported that Telluride and Norwood medical centers had met respiratory-illness demand, and that take-home antigen kits remained available through the county while state supply was expected to change. The Wilkinson Public Library’s supply concerns also belong to that dated report.
The original reported walk-in COVID-vaccine clinics on Wednesdays from 2 to 4 p.m. and possible future eligibility changes. Those schedules and eligibility statements must not be used as current instructions.
The county said state shipments of free rapid tests would stop at the end of April 2023. Franklin described ordering extra stock and shifting NAAT funding toward replacement antigen kits. Wilkinson Public Library director Sarah Landeryou described difficulty obtaining further shipments. Those were supply plans and concerns at the time, not promises of free kits today.
Franklin said the Telluride and Norwood medical centers could evaluate respiratory illness, including flu, RSV, strep and mononucleosis, and that the county could reassess its clinic decision if demand changed. The report discussed the bivalent booster introduced in September 2022, children reaching six months of age, and interest in another dose among people 65 and older. Eligibility language and references to awaiting FDA action reflect the report’s timing; they are not present vaccine instructions.
The source calls the final San Miguel NAAT clinic “Thursday.” The exact calendar date is not independently established here. This page’s Sunday, April 23 publication date does not make April 23 the clinic date.
The archive said NAAT testing in Ouray County would run through May 30, 2023, while in-person rapid-antigen testing was contracted through December 2023. It listed Monday through Thursday hours of 9 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 3 p.m. at the county public-health office. Those hours are historical, not current.
Ouray testing coordinator Linda Tyler supplied the testing-contract details. The county office also offered take-home kits then. Public Health Director Tanner Kingery described vaccine supplies and preparations for booster clinics for older and immunocompromised residents, subject to the approvals being discussed at the time.
The national emergency declaration ended April 10, 2023. The federal COVID-19 public health emergency ended May 11, 2023. The article’s Medicare, Paxlovid, telehealth and vaccine-eligibility statements were tied to that changing 2023 framework and should not guide a current coverage or treatment decision.
The original report described Medicare oral-antiviral coverage, including Paxlovid, through the end of 2024 and telehealth extensions through the end of 2024. These dates are retained as historical reporting, not a determination of any person’s eligibility, treatment or current insurance coverage.
For current local public-health information, use San Miguel County, the CDC and Medicare, and consult an appropriate clinician for medical care.