Mountain States Bureau

Latest California Healthline Stories

Tracking COVID’s Spread Inside a Tight-Knit Latino Community

Contact tracing for COVID-19 in a Latino immigrant community has some unique challenges. But as public health officials in Telluride, Colorado, are showing, using resources from inside those communities can help track and contain the coronavirus.

Need a COVID-19 Nurse? That’ll Be $8,000 a Week

A shortage of nurses has turned hospital staffing into a sort of national bidding war, with hospitals willing to pay exorbitant wages to secure the nurses they need. That threatens to shift the supply of nurses toward more affluent areas.

People Proving to Be Weakest Link for Apps Tracking COVID Exposure

Contact tracers in many states are stretched thin. Colorado is among the latest states to launch an app that aims to help, based on the COVID contact-tracing tool built by Apple and Google. But there’s a chicken-and-egg problem: More people will use them if they prove to work, but the apps become effective only if more people use them.

States’ Face-Covering Mandates Leave Gaps in Protection

States vary in how they define face coverings in their mandates. But a bandanna or neck gaiter isn’t nearly as effective as a surgical or cloth mask. Public health experts say every state needs more standardization to protect against COVID-19.

How Escalating COVID Cases Forced One State to Change Its Masking Strategy

Montana is seeking penalties against some businesses that violated its mask and social distancing directives, after months of reluctance to enforce COVID restrictions. Meanwhile, cities, counties and tribal nations still struggle to get people to mask up and avoid crowds.