Saturday marks one year since first COVID-19 death in Colorado

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- A year ago today, Colorado reported its first death due to COVID-19: a woman in her 80s passed away in El Paso County on March 13, 2020.

At that time, Colorado had fewer than 100 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with just 72 statewide. Two of those cases were in El Paso County.

Health officials announced that the woman who died had contracted the virus from a bridge tournament in Colorado Springs. The same tournament led to multiple other people catching COVID-19, and El Paso County saw a higher number of COVID-19 deaths early in the pandemic.

“While we were expecting this day, it doesn't make it any less difficult to hear and share this news. As a state we are in mourning and our hearts go out to the family and loved ones of the Coloradan we lost,” said Governor Jared Polis in a statement at the time the death was announced in 2020.

In the year that has passed since that day, more than 6,000 people have died due to COVID-19, and there have been over 440,000 documented cases of the coronavirus, according to state data.