GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – As of 4 o’clock Wednesday, officials at St. Mary’s confirmed that the hospital is currently treating seven patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 and the hospital is also treating five more patients who are waiting for test results to come back.

It’s important to mention, of these twelve patients at St. Mary’s, only two are Mesa County residents, the other 10 are from counties across Western Colorado.

Those two patients from mesa county are included in the health department’s most recent number of five cases here in the county.

St. Mary’s also said there are more people coming to the medical center from other counties simply because this hospital has more ICU space and more amenities for this type of treatment.

“We assume the number we’re gonna need to have for the Western Slope is about 120 ICU beds, and so our surge plan is we’re pushing up to that now, we’re seeing the capability of about 90 today and we’re looking at alternatives to grow the extra 30 to get to that 120 number,” said CEO of St. Mary’s Medical Center, Brian Johnson.

We also asked why all testing is being done through the health department, and why hospitals are not involved in testing, despite having the capabilities to test.

St. Mary’s said, right now it’s because surge planning is in place, which means everything is being handled through the county, up through the state, and then up to the federal level in order to keep the information accurate and organized.

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