SAN LUIS VALLEY – Monday, Nov. 30, COVID-19 active cases in the SLV were 254. As of Dec. 9, active cases in the Valley’s five counties continued to increase by 37 and went from 254 to 301 during the past week. Alamosa County once again saw the largest increase in active cases with 22 more cases than a week ago. Not far behind, Conejos County saw an increase of 21 active cases during the past week.
Tuesday, Dec. 8, Governor Polis extended the mandatory mask requirement while indoors.  
Statewide the seven-day positivity rate slightly decreased from 12.41% to 12.36% over the past week. San Luis Valley Public Health Partnership reported Dec. 8 that the SLV two-week positivity rate had dropped from 6.03% to 4.76%. The SLV positivity rate fell below the 5% threshold set by the World Health Organization for the first time in several weeks.
On Dec. 9 Rio Grande, Conejos, Mineral, and Costilla counties continue to be at level “Orange” on the state’s COVID-19 dial. Alamosa County remains at level “Red” and Saguache County remains at level “Yellow.” Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) reserves the right to move a county to a more restrictive level at any point, should circumstances warrant more aggressive restrictions.
The San Luis Valley Public Health Partnership stated Monday, Dec. 7, “Since the pandemic began, there have been 28 COVID-related deaths among San Luis Valley residents.
According to the CDPHE, COVID-19 dial dashboard Wednesday, Dec. 9, all counties in the SLV continued to have a decrease in the positivity rate of tests conducted. Among the SLV counties Rio Grande County had the lowest COVID-19 test positivity rate of 2.7% - a decrease of 1.1% from last week. Conejos County dropped from 9.1% to a positivity rate of 7.4%, Saguache County dropped from 11.3% to 7.4%, Alamosa County dropped from 7.0% to 5.6%, Costilla County decreased from 6.8% to 5.9% and Mineral County went from 5.6% to a 4.2% positivity rate. Note that positivity rates have increased slightly the past couple of days in the SLV. The low positivity rate could be due to mass drive-thru testing being conducted on those who were asymptomatic.
There were 301 known active cases in the SLV Wednesday, Dec. 9. “Active cases” means that the cases are confirmed positive for COVID-19 and are currently being supported by Public Health during their isolation period. Active cases by county were as follows as of Wednesday, Dec. 9:
Alamosa: 162
Conejos: 51
Costilla: 7
Mineral: 1
Rio Grande: 70
Saguache: 10
According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center Wednesday, Dec. 9, Colorado continues to have a lower seven-day positivity moving average test rate of 12.36% which is lower than all neighboring states.  Wyoming saw a dramatic decrease in positive test rates going from 32.8% to 15.1% over the past week. Other neighboring positivity rates over the past week Dec. 9 showed Kansas had a COVID-19 positivity rate of 43.1%, Utah 20.0%, Arizona 30.1%, Nebraska 12.7% and Oklahoma 15.5%. The Colorado and World Health Organization two-week positivity goal is 5% or lower.