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109 employee cases of COVID-19 reported at Winter Park, 894 other outbreaks active in Colorado

More than a dozen COVID-19 outbreaks are tied to Colorado ski areas, but no confirmed cases have been linked to attendees.

COLORADO, USA — This week's outbreak list from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) has numerous new additions, including cases at schools, restaurants and ski areas. 

Winter Park Resort in Grand County has the latest ski area outbreak in the state, with 109 employees having tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak was declared on Jan. 23, according to the data. 

This number accounts for 6.4% of the 1,700 employees at the ski area. The outbreak wasn't reported to the state by Grand County Public Health until this week, according to a joint statement between the agency and the resort. 

"CDPHE and Winter Park Resort [WPR] are proactively enacting protocols that allow more state resources to be used in aid of suppressing COVID-19 activity in the WPR employee group, including increased testing and this announcement. WPR, GCPH and the Grand County Board of Health (BOH) will utilize all local and state resources in order to address these cases and support the community," a portion of the statement reads.

Alexis Kimbrough, the deputy director of Emergency Management for Grand County, said "the category of business that the resort operates under does not mandate that GCPH report it to the state." 

"However, because of the resources that are provided through CDPHE when an outbreak is reported, all organizations agreed to report it," she wrote in an email to 9NEWS.  

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A Winter Park spokesperson has not yet responded to an inquiry from 9NEWS regarding the circumstances believed to be associated with the outbreak, or if it has impacted operations at the ski area. 

Jen Miller, a Winter Park spokesperson, said that the outbreak involved seasonal employees who live in shared spaces with roommates and that "through contact tracing, we learned that many employee cases are linked to social gatherings outside the workplace and congregate employee housing." 

Recent lift closures at the resort were due to weather rather than staffing shortages, Miller said. 

No attendee cases have been linked to this outbreak or any of the other 14 involving Colorado ski areas, according to CDPHE's data.           

These outbreaks are among the 895 currently listed as active in Colorado. Another 2,806 are listed as resolved. 

Two cases of the novel coronavirus constitute an outbreak, and the numbers are cumulative, meaning if an entity has a certain number of cases, that doesn't mean all those people were sick at once. 

For an outbreak to be resolved, CDPHE said 28 days must pass with no new illnesses. 

See a full list of outbreaks by category below. 

> Click here for the full outbreak list from CDPHE.

> The interactive map below shows COVID-19 outbreaks in Colorado by location. 

Outdoor recreation and tourism

In addition to Winter Park, smaller COVID-19 outbreaks were reported at Monarch Mountain, Vail, Copper, Breckenridge and Keystone, according to CDPHE's data. 

Other outbreaks have been reported at Colorado hotels: notably, 63 employees have tested positive for COVID-19 at the Great Wolf Lodge in El Paso County, and there have been 58 cases among staff at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. 

No attendee cases were linked to any of these outbreaks. 

See the full list of tourism related outbreaks from CDPHE below. 

Schools 

There are 122 active COVID-19 outbreaks associated with Colorado K-12 schools, according to CDPHE's data. 

These active outbreaks have resulted in 248 cases among staff and 799 cases among students, according to the data. No deaths have been linked to outbreaks at Colorado K-12 schools. 

As of Monday, teachers were eligible to begin receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. 

See the full list of school-related COVID-19 outbreaks below. 

Restaurants 

There are 40 active COVID-19 outbreaks at Colorado restaurants, according to CDPHE's data. 

These have resulted in 337 cases among staff and 12 cases among attendees. Of those cases, 176 are linked to the In-N-Out locations in Colorado Springs and Arapahoe County.

No deaths are linked to the any of the active restaurant outbreaks. 

See the full list below. 

Retailers 

There are 67 active COVID-19 outbreaks tied to retailers in Colorado, resulting in 1040 employee cases and one death, according to CDPHE's data. 

These outbreaks have occurred at big box stores like Target, Home Depot, Walmart, American Furniture Warehouse and more. 

CDPHE does not list any attendee cases tied to these outbreaks. 

See the full list of retailer outbreaks below. 

Grocery stores 

There are 28 active COVID-19 outbreaks at Colorado grocery stores, according to CDPHE. 

These outbreaks have accounted for 446 cases of COVID-19 among employees, and none among attendees. 

Grocery store employees are among the essential workers slated to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in the next round. 

See the full list of grocery store outbreaks below. 

> Click here for the full outbreak list from CDPHE.

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