An 11th Grand County resident has died due to COVID-19.

Following a series of COVID-19 deaths in Grand County in September and October, more than a month went by with no additional resident deaths. The 11th death occurred just before Thanksgiving, Grand County Public Health Director Abbie Baker told county commissioners on Tuesday.

The county reports an additional four deaths with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, meaning these residents died with COVID-19 but the illness was not considered a cause of death.

Currently in Grand County, 80% of COVID-19 deaths were in unvaccinated individuals.

Baker said that six residents are currently hospitalized due to COVID-19. All hospitalized residents are unvaccinated, according to the county.

Statewide, 82% of COVID hospitalizations are unvaccinated individuals.

Just 6% of ICU beds are available statewide, though the Foothills RETAC region that Grand County is a part of has seen a slight improvement in bed availability. There are 45 beds available in the region after dropping to just 1%, or three beds, on Thursday.

According to state reporting, 1,379 hospitalized people statewide are confirmed COVID-19 patients. There are a total of 2,901 ICU beds and 15,875 acute care beds in the state, but state reporting does not specify how COVID-19 patients are split between the two types of care.

There have been 40 local COVID-19 cases in the last seven days, with 53% of cases in unvaccinated people, 30% in vaccinated people and 19% with vaccination status unknown. Of those cases in the past week, 18% have been in children under 18.

In a public health advisory notice issued Thursday, Baker explained that the Omicron variant has been detected in Arapahoe County, Colorado. This variant is considered one of concern, but not much is known about it yet.

“Now is not the time for panic, but for caution,” Baker said of the new variant.

Baker added in that letter that, while no vaccine is 100% effective, vaccines are proving to be about 75% effective at preventing illness and 86-92% effective at reducing severe illness, hospitalization and death against COVID-19.

See county COVID-19 vaccine offerings at http://www.co.grand.co.us/vaccine, which includes flu vaccine offerings as well. COVID boosters are recommended for people more than six months out from their second round of COVID vaccine doses, or two months out from the Johnson and Johnson vaccine shot.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with figures on the vaccination statuses of resident COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations.