County reports five virus outbreaks
Five coronavirus outbreaks were reported in Boulder County by the state this week, which includes two that are new and three older outbreaks that were not previously reported.
Two other outbreaks were reported as resolved.
Boulder County also on Thursday reported 56 new cases of COVID-19, no new deaths and two new hospitalizations.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment released its outbreak report Wednesday, which showed five outbreaks in the county. The two new outbreaks are at Life Care Center of Longmont, Boulder Manor, And TRU Community Care in Lafayette. The two older outbreaks not previously repor ted are at Roughriders 14/15 boys hockey team in Superior and The Acorn School for Early Childhood Development in Boulder.
The outbreaks at Boulder Manor and TRU Care Community were determined before the previous outbreak report released Jan. 17, but were first included in the report released Wednesday. The outbreak at Roughriders boys hockey team was determined Feb.
5 and the outbreak at The Acorn School for Early Childhood Development was identified on Feb. 8, neither of these outbreaks had been previously reported.
An outbreak involving five staff membes at TRU Care Community, 2594 Trailridge Drive East, Lafayette was determined on Feb. 16.
“TRU Community Care is working through a new COVID-19 outbreak, unrelated to a previously reported outbreak earlier this year that has since been resolved,” TRU Community Care spokeswoman Jen Thomas said in an email Thursday.
The in-home care provider offering palliative, hospice and support services employs 230 staff members and “test patient-facing staf f a minimum of once a week and have now added routine testing for administrative staff who report to the office,” Thomas wrote.
She also said protective gear is worn during all patient and family interactions. Thomas also noted TRU Care Community has not confirmed any staff-topatient transmissions.
Thomas wrote that the hospice provider’s internal clinical educator and infection control nurse is working closely with Colorado Depar tment of Public Health and Environment and Boulder County Public Health epidemiologists to conduct contact tracing, looking at protocols and resolutions.
An outbreak determined Feb. 16 at Boulder Manor, 4685 Baseline Road, involved one resident case and two staf f member cases, state data shows. The longterm care facility did not respond to requests for comment.
The state data also indicated the outbreak determined Feb. 12 at Life Care Center of Longmont, 2451 Pratt St., involved one resident case and one staff member case, state. The in-patient and outpatient rehabilitation facility did not respond to requests for comment.
A previously unreported outbreak determined Feb. 8 at The Acorn School for Early Childhood Development, 2845 Wilderness Place in Boulder, involved three staf f according to state data. The school did not respond to requests for comment.
According to state data, another previously unreported outbreak determined Feb. 5 at Roughriders 14/15 boys hockey team in Superior involved two staff member cases. The hockey organization did not respond to requests for comment.
The state report also shows two outbreaks were resolved within the University of Colorado football team and Longmont Regent in Longmont.
The 56 new cases bring the county’s total cases to 18,779. The number of deaths remains unchanged at 246 and the two new hospitalizations raise the county’s total to 538. There are 26 residents currently hospitalized with coronavirus. Five residents were discharged Thursday after receiving COVID-19 treatment.
The University of Colorado Boulder updated its dashboard Thursday. On Wednesday, there were two positive test results from 192 diagnostic tests and 1,497 monitoring tests. The dashboard showed there are 10 isolation spaces in use, which is 2% of the university’s isolation spaces. Since the start of spring testing Jan. 4, there have been 326 positives from 5,273 diagnostic tests and 32,809 monitoring tests.
Boulder Valley School District updated its dashboard Thursday. The district reported 23 active cases with 338 students and 50 staff members in quarantine. Four of the districts’ high school athletic clubs are also repor ting five active cases and subsequent quarantines.
“In working with our public health par tners we established protocols for spectators to gather their contact information to notify them in the event of a possible close contact and are taking the proper precautious to ensure everyone’s safety,” BVSD spokesperson Randy Barber said Thursday.
He also said four of the cases are from girls’ basketball games and one case is linked to a boys’ wrestling match.
The St. Vrain Valley School District reported on its dashboard Thursday 32 active cases, split between 22 students and 10 staff. The district has seen a cumulative 611 student cases and 229 staf f cases, totaling 840.
Statewide, health officials reported there are 424,677 cases. There have been 5,925 deaths among cases, and of those, 5,860 deaths because of COVID-19 have been recorded. A total of 23,385 people have been hospitalized. Of Colorado’s more than 5.7 million people, 2,558,435 people have been tested.