At least 111 people in Colorado now have died of complications related to the novel coronavirus, as hospitalizations continue to spike, state health officials said Friday.
Officials said 4,173 people have now tested positive for COVID-19, the highly infectious respiratory illness causes by the virus, as the state has ramped up its testing capabilities to more than 2,000 per day. Still, the number of people infected with the new coronavirus is likely four to 10 times higher than reported, top health officials previously said.
At least 823 people have been hospitalized with the illness, while health officials confirmed 27 outbreaks at residential and non-hospital health care facilities.
El Paso and Weld counties — with 18 and 16 deaths respectively — have seen the most deaths in the state related to the global outbreak.
Gov. Jared Polis on Friday said anyone leaving their homes to buy groceries or to take a neighborhood walk should now be wearing non-medical face masks to stop the spread of the virus. Based on new research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which says as many as 1 in 4 people infected with the virus may not show symptoms, Polis said old T-shirts or any type of cloth will do as a makeshift mask, reserving the medical N95 masks for health care workers.
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