Health alert: El Paso County woman who died of COVID-19 may have exposed others in high-risk age group
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- El Paso County Public Health has issued a public health alert for anyone who attended games at the Colorado Springs Bridge Center from late February to early March. This comes after learning that the local woman in her 80s who died of COVID-19 had recently attended card games there.
Specifically, the health alert is for anyone who attended games on the following dates:
- 02/27/2020 Thursday Evening Unit Pairs
- 02/28/2020 Friday Morning Pairs
- 02/29/2020 299er Pair
- 02/29/2020 299er Pairs
- 03/01/2020 299er Swiss
- 03/03/2020 499'rs
“We’re extremely concerned about possible transmission both at the tournament and in communities after they went home,” said Kimberly Pattison, EPCPH Communicable Disease Program Manager, in a statement. “Many attendees were older people who might be especially vulnerable to severe illness from COVID-19.”
Dr. Robin Johnson, the medical director for El Paso County Public Health, said the elderly woman who passed away was in contact with around 100 people before she was hospitalized.
“We have encountered one additional presumptive positive case in El Paso County bringing our total county cases to three," said Johnson on Saturday afternoon. "The third case is a male who did play bridge with the COVID-19 patient who has died.”
Johnson said people should call their healthcare provider if they interacted with the woman and are showing symptoms.
“For older people and anyone who belongs to a more vulnerable group, we continue to urge you to stay away from large gatherings,” said State Epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy in a statement. “As the governor has recommended, people should stay away from gatherings of more than 250 people. We all have a role in protecting each other from possible exposure.”
The following is information from El Paso County Public Health:
To ensure expedience on reporting presumptive positive cases, the state will provide overall testing statistics as soon as we are able on the website.
If you are in El Paso County and have non-urgent questions, an El Paso County Public Health call center at 719-575-8888 will be open from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. today.
Members of the public can also contact CO-HELP at 303-389-1687 or 1-877-462-2911, for answers in many languages, or email them at COHELP@RMPDC.org for answers in English.
At the time of publication, Colorado has 101 presumptive cases of COVID-19. Three of those -- including the woman who passed away -- were in El Paso County.
