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Aspen Public Radio will keep you informed on the latest information about the coronavirus here in Colorado and the Valley.

UPDATED: Nine Cases Of COVID-19 Now Confirmed In Pitkin County

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Updated: March 11, 2:42 p.m. 

Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE) has confirmed that six additional people who were in contact with the Australian visitor have tested presumptively positive for coronavirus.  

 

 

These additional positive results are in addition to the previous three positive tests that were announced earlier Wednesday.  This brings the number of positive tests in Pitkin County to nine. There is still one test outstanding. 

Pitkin County Public Health has established a local Coronavirus Hotline 970-429-6186 staffed from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m, seven days a week where it can be determined if you meet the criteria for COVID-19 testing. Those include the following...

  • The patient has a fever OR signs/symptoms of lower respiratory illness, such as cough or shortness of breath, AND the patient has been in close contact with someone confirmed with COVID-19, within 14 days of when symptoms started.

 

  • The patient has a fever OR signs/symptoms of lower respiratory illness (and other diagnoses such as influenza have been ruled out), AND the patient recently traveled to parts of the world where infection rates are high or community spread is occurring, within 14 days of when symptoms started.

 

  • Severe acute lower respiratory illness (e.g., pneumonia, ARDS) requiring hospitalization and without alternative explanatory diagnosis (e.g., influenza). 

Cases are considered “presumptive positive” until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirm the cases.

Original story: Wednesday, March 11, 11:22 a.m.

The Colorado Department of Public Health has announced that three cases of COVID-19, or the new coronavirus, have been found in Aspen. 

The three individuals were all from a group of Australian visitors who recently traveled to the area. One 21-year-old woman in the grouptested positive for the virus after returning to her home country. 

13 members of that group who exhibited symptoms of coronavirus have been in self-isolation in Aspen while waiting for test results. Seven cases are still pending. 

“These visitors are currently in quarantine. CDPHE staff, in conjunction with Pitkin County Public Health, are monitoring people who may have been exposed,” Karen Koenemann, director of Pitkin County Public Health, said in a press release. “We hope that these folks recover quickly and there is no additional spread in Pitkin County.”

Pitkin County Incident Management Team is in contact with those tested presumptive positive as well as the local properties impacted.

Health officials expect more cases to be identified in the state of Colorado in the coming days. Yesterday, Governor Jared Polis announced a state of emergency to help slow the spread of the virus. 

Editor's note: A previous version of this story stated that three individuals in the group of 13 tested negative for COVID-19, though officials confirmed three individuals were not tested.

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