CO
The Aspen-area community is now experiencing “community transmission” of the COVID-19 virus, two local public health officials said Friday.
That means the virus has spread among the local population — outside of the group of visiting Australians who were previously identified as the area’s only cases — and cannot be traced back to an original source, said Karen Koenemann, Pitkin County Public Health director.
“From what (the state public health department has) seen, … we have limited community spread in this community,” she said during a media briefing call Friday afternoon. “We know for certain that there’s community spread in Eagle County.
“And so, because of that, knowing it’s just a matter of time, we decided to be really proactive with Eagle and Garfield (counties) around this.”
The comment referenced a tri-county public health order issued late Thursday night forbidding gatherings of more than 50 people until April 8.
But the diagnosis of Aspen community transmission of the virus was not backed up by official test numbers of local Aspen or Pitkin County residents who have come up positive for the COVID-19 virus.
Koenemann said local public health officials hadn’t received test results back from the state lab from samples taken from at least 25 residents Wednesday and Thursday. She said she did not know when those results might become available.
Nonetheless, Aspen Ambulance Director Gabe Muething agreed that Aspen-area community transmission of the virus has occurred.
“We know at this point we do have community transmission,” Muething said during Friday’s media call.
https://www.aspentimes.com/news/virus-reaches-community-transmission-in-aspen/