More than 500 residents have been hospitalized with the coronavirus and nearly 3,000 people infected as the highly-contagious virus spreads through Colorado, data from the state's health department showed Tuesday.

The state's total number of coronavirus deaths rose to 69, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Public health officials have cautioned that state and county data may not accurately reflect the true picture of the virus's spread. The department's data lags behind at least a day because of the virus's incubation period, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said at a news conference last week.

El Paso County continued to lead the state in deaths as the total reached 13 Tuesday — up from 11 reported Monday. Local health officials said the high number could be attributed to the county's large population and the virus's widespread exposure to the elderly, particularly from a bridge tournament when the virus first emerged in Colorado.

The first coronavirus-related death in Colorado was an 83-year-old woman who died March 13 in Colorado Springs. Weeks before her death, she potentially inadvertently exposed dozens to the virus at several bridge club games, El Paso County Public Health officials reported. Since then, officials have confirmed at least three other deaths in the county were related to the card games.

Another bridge player who was exposed to the virus attended a choir practice where about 100 additional people may have been exposed, said Dr. Leon Kelly, deputy health director for El Paso County Public Health.

"This is a 12-round title battle. ... At the opening bell we got punched in the mouth," Kelly said of the early days of infection in the state.

The total number of deaths in El Paso County from the coronavirus will be driven, in part, by how many elderly and at-risk patients contract the illness, he said. But the number is also a function of the county's population of more than 700,000, he said.

If the community can limit exposure among residents over age 60, it could reduce the need for hospitalizations and see fewer deaths, Kelly said. State data shows the highest percentage of Coloradans who contracted the virus are in their 50s, but people in their 80s have been far more likely to die of the disease.

"It’s not necessarily how many people get it, it’s who get’s it," Kelly said.

Health Care Facilities

The state health department reported Tuesday at least 16 outbreaks of the virus at non-hospital health care facilities throughout Colorado. Two of them were in Colorado Springs: Laurel Manor Care Center at 920 S. Chelton Rd. and MorningStar Assisted Living at Mountain Shadows at 5355 Centennial Blvd.

A third Colorado Springs facility was reported by El Paso County's health department to have cases of the virus: Winslow Court Retirement Community at 3920 E. San Miguel St. Four residents at the Winslow community have been hospitalized and tested positive for coronavirus, said Kim Butler, executive director of the assisted living and independent living facility. The four residents are all stable, she said.

The facility also had two staff members test positive, Butler said.

Winslow confirmed its first case of the virus on March 25 and has been in daily communication with the health department to help track exposure to the virus, Butler said. The facility worked to get residents tested early so the staff could make informed decisions, she said.

Butler described the outbreak as a “really hard time for everybody” but said she has seen commitment from health care workers during the chaos. “A lot of people are doing really excellent work,” she said.

One of El Paso County's recent deaths was a resident at MorningStar, who died Monday, according to a news release from the senior living facility. The resident was hospitalized on March 23, the same day symptoms were first exhibited, officials said in the statement.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the resident’s family,” MorningStar founder and CEO Ken Jaeger said in the statement.

Nine residents at Laurel Manor, a senior care facility in southeast Colorado Springs, have tested positive for the virus, said David Burch, a spokesman for Volunteers of America, which runs the facility. One resident is hospitalized and two have died, Burch said. The six others are quarantined inside the facility, which has 69 other residents, he said.

The nine infected residents were part of an initial group of people who showed symptoms and were tested, but results from three of the nine were delayed, Burch said. The health department reported six positive cases at the facility on March 19.

The health department is working with other long-term care facilities that may have residents or workers with coronavirus to help slow the spread, Kelly said. Those 12 have not been classified as outbreaks, said Michelle Hewitt, spokeswoman for the El Paso County health department.

In those facilities, the department is working to test residents, put infection prevention measures in place and separate the sick residents from others in those facilities, she said.

“Early detection of any kind of outbreak in a long-term care facility is crucial for limiting spread of illness among residents,” Hewitt said.

Hewitt in an email Tuesday defined a coronavirus outbreak as when two people at a facility have a respiratory illness with a one-week period and one of them is a resident. The long-term facility must also have one person test positive for COVID-19 during that period, she said.

Temporary Hospitals

State health officials also said Tuesday there is a "significant effort" to identify sites for and prepare temporary hospitals throughout Colorado in anticipation of a potential coronavirus surge.

Potential sites include the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland and other facilities, said Mike Willis, director for the State Emergency Operations Center.

Based on modeling, Colorado must acquire an additional 5,000 ICU beds and procure an additional 7,000 ventilators to handle a potential peak in diagnoses, Scott Bookman, the incident commander with the state health department, said.

Hewitt said in an email Tuesday that local surge capacity plans are in the process of being assembled.

"Currently, our hospitals are meeting the need for beds and have not reached capacity," she said. "Our hospitals began postponing elective procedures three weeks ago to open up the number of patient beds and preserve personal protective equipment. Plans are being developed to allow them to significantly increase capacity to meet the needs of our community."

The Pikes Peak Regional Office of Emergency Management has arranged for emergency overflow beds at two facilities in case they are needed, Hewitt added. She declined to say which facilities, citing procurement rules.

A former hardware store in Woodland Park became the Pikes Peak region's first "surge site" that will be used for potential overflow of hospital patients in Teller County — where one person has died of the coronavirus and seven others have tested positive.

“The curve has not yet hit us,” Don Angell, emergency management director for Teller County, said of the nationwide spread of the novel coronavirus. “We know things are coming — we just don’t have a date or a time — but I’d rather be ahead of the curve than behind the curve."

The Gazette's Mary Shinn, Erin Prater, Debbie Kelley and Olivia Prentzel, and Colorado Politics' Marianne Goodland contributed to this report.