Health Officials Closely Monitoring Castle Peak Senior Center for COVID-19

This article and image first appeared in RealVail on May 12, 2020

Health officials in the Eagle River Valley are reportedly closely monitoring the situation at the Castle Peak senior center in Eagle after the death of a resident last week who later tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

According to Eagle County health officials, as of Tuesday morning there have been 565 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county – an early hotspot for the disease in Colorado in March – and eight deaths of Eagle County residents. More than 3,000 people have been tested.

Statewide, as of Tuesday, there have been 19,879 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 987 deaths.

As of Monday night, three other residents and four caregivers have tested positive for COVID-19 at Castle Peak, and all were asymptomatic. Everyone in the facility will reportedly be tested again on Thursday.

All the positive tests were for residents or workers in the therapy ward, and the three residents are reportedly being isolated in a special area in the facility with Vail Health officials on site and now working with the facility to mitigate the situation.

“As the community’s health care system, Vail Health and Colorado Mountain Medical have provided additional resources and expertise to aid the Castle Peak Senior Life and Rehabilitation staff as they navigate through this COVID-19 situation,” Dr. Brooks Bock, CEO of CMM, said in an email statement via a spokeswoman.

“Castle Peak is a valued resource for our aging population, who is more at-risk to complications from COVID-19, and their team has done a tremendous job adjusting operations to help protect their residents and staff,” Brooks added.

Residents who have not tested positive are not being allowed to leave the facility for 14 days.

An incomplete survey of elder care facilities by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that deaths of residents in those facilities accounted for more than half of all deaths in 14 states nationwide.