Utah Officials Respond After Viral Outbreak In Neighboring Colorado
Nov 22, 2019, 7:05 AM
GRAND COUNTY, Utah – The Grand County Sheriff’s Office is responding after an outbreak of two highly-contagious viruses in neighboring Mesa County, Colorado.
Authorities are warning residents in Utah to watch for signs of what’s suspected to be norvirus. They said symptoms, like vomiting and diarrhea, come on very quickly.
Anyone showing these symptoms is advised to stay home until the sickness has passed.
Health officials are warning that if it is norovirus, the illness is spread through vomit. It can’t be cleaned up with normal cleansers, they said. It has to be bleached to kill the virus.
Forty-six schools in Mesa County are currently closed as crews work to disinfect the buildings after the outbreak.
It’s not just the schools being impacted, though. More than 400 Air Force cadets in Colorado Springs have come down with symptoms of the suspected norovirus. The sicknesses happened at the United States Air Force Academy, located about 300 miles away from the Grand Junction area.
It’s not clear if these illnesses are related to those Mesa County. The Air Force stated it has not yet declared the situation as an outbreak.
