PUEBLO — More people are dying as a result of COVID-19 in Fremont County than ever before during the pandemic.
"The foot traffic for vaccinations has been really crazy here lately, probably… We haven't seen this kind of rush since the vaccinations first came out," said William Shelver, Owner of Reams Palace Drug in downtown Cañon City.
Palace Drug offers COVID-19 vaccines every Thursday and sells rapid tests.
"We get them sporadically and they're gone by noon. As soon as we get them in we've got people calling, trying to come in and get those," said Shelver about the rapid tests.
St. Thomas More hospital in Cañon City says about half of their admits in the last month have been related to COVID-19.
Brian Turney, Interim CEO for the hospital, says the staff members "are tired cause this is the second surge, they've been dealing with this for a long time".
Right now, 53.6% of Fremont County's population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
"If you have a fire spreading and you have a lot of dry wood so to speak, it's going to burn faster and I think that is what's happening in this area," said Turney, referring to the county's relatively low vaccination rate.
News 5 reached out to Fremont County's Health Department to see whether or not any changes could be made in to community to slow the spread of the virus, but did not receive a response.
