Skiers Take Extra Precautions After Coronavirus Patient Stayed In Summit County
SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4)- Some skiers and boarders are taking extra precautions after the first confirmed case of coronavirus was a man who was diagnosed while visiting Summit County earlier this week.
The man in his 30s went to Summit County Medical Center in Frisco on March 3 after traveling to Keystone on Feb. 28. He flew into Denver International Airport from California with friends and they drove a rental car to the mountains to go skiing at Keystone and Vail Mountain.
The man had visited Italy in mid-February.
Brett Hawkins is in Keystone from Denver for a ski weekend, despite his concern about the coronavirus.
"(It's) very close to home. You hear about it in Washington and California. you don't think it could happen in Colorado but here we are," he said.
No other guests have stayed at the unit, located in the Slopeside Condominiums complex since the infected man who tested positive for coronavirus checked out. One cleaning worker did enter the unit about 23 hours after the infected man checked out. Health officials in Summit County believe the worker's risk of contracting the virus is considered to be very low.
"I think it's concerning that a person can travel internationally with the virus and show up in our back yard," said Hawkins.
Hawkins and his family are taking extra precautions to stay healthy, "We're washing our hands a lot more in our household. We're disinfecting door handles and in our condo just up the way we certainly came in and disinfected as best we could."
Brett isn't ready to cancel his trip just yet, but he is playing it by ear.
"Certainly it's concerning and something we all have to be on the lookout for," said Hawkins. "I think we will just take some precautions. Extra precautions and see how it ends up."
The City and County of Denver has identified two people who have tested positive for coronavirus. This comes the day after Colorado's first two COVID-19 cases were announced and just hours before El Paso County announced the first coronavirus case there and another two cases in Douglas County, as well as a case in Eagle County.
This bring the total number of positive cases of coronavirus in Colorado to eight as of Friday afternoon.
