Bridge Blog 1122: A dangerous game

Airport Bridge Club manager Bill Finkelstein, who showed great foresight and got out ahead of the curve when he announced he was closing his game last Thursday, March 12, has passed along this alarming news story from Colorado Springs, Colo.:

Dozens in high-risk age group possibly exposed to coronavirus at Colorado Springs card tournament

LIZ HENDERSON liz.henderson@gazette.com

Mar 14, 2020 Updated Mar 15, 2020

The state's first coronavirus death — an 83-year-old woman who died Friday at a Colorado Springs hospital — may have exposed dozens of the most vulnerable to the flu-like disease at a west-side card tournament nearly two weeks ago.

The Colorado Springs Bridge Center, one of the city's largest and oldest bridge clubs, posted on its website Saturday that the woman was one of its members.

That other card players were exposed was confirmed with the announcement Saturday that a man who had played bridge with the woman at the club had tested positive for coronavirus, the third presumptive case in El Paso County. The first reported coronavirus case in El Paso County, a man in his 40s who had returned from travel abroad, has fully recovered, a public health official said Saturday.

“We’re extremely concerned about possible transmission both at the tournament and in communities after they went home,” said Kimberly Pattison with El Paso County Public Health. “Many attendees were older people who might be especially vulnerable to severe illness from COVID-19.

At a news conference Saturday at the regional emergency management building, officials said the public health department is attempting to contact all those who had contact with the woman.

"Several of the individuals we know had contact with the woman have tests that are pending for COVID-19 and are currently under medical evaluation," Dr. Robin Johnson with county public health said.

Johnson said the woman may have come into contact with someone who had recently traveled, but she couldn't say when or where.

"My understanding is that she was unaware at the time that she was playing bridge that she had symptoms that she would have been concerned about," Johnson added.

The woman most recently played on March 3, when nearly 70 other players attended, said club director John Dukellis.

News of the woman's death spread fear among members of the bridge club, which has been shut down at least through the end of the month, he said.

Her bridge partner self-isolated Saturday, telling Dukellis that the woman had looked "flush" and "not herself" the day of the March 3 tournament, he said.

Most of the club's members, according to Dukellis, are over 60, the age group most at risk of having severe cases of coronavirus, along with those with diabetes and heart or lung disease.

"Everyone at our club would be at high risk," he said.

       The woman also was at a Feb. 29 tournament where about 85 people from around the state — including Colorado Springs, Denver, Pueblo and Buena Vista — played in morning and afternoon sessions, Dukellis said. He was unsure if she had symptoms at the time.

The club hosts tournaments and afternoon card games every day except Sunday at 901 N. 17th Street. Dukellis said Westside Community church holds services in the building Sunday and Wednesday nights.

       County public health officials said in a news release that those who attended games at the Bridge Center on Feb. 27-29, March 1 or March 3, and are experiencing symptoms, should call their health care provider.

Public health officials were given the roster from the woman's last several tournaments, Dukellis said.

El Paso County Public Health officials have not released the woman's name, but said Friday that she died at UCHealth Memorial Central Hospital.

The hospital received confirmation that the woman tested positive for COVID-19 after she died, a UCHealth statement said.

Cary Vogrin, a hospital spokeswoman, said Friday privacy laws prevent her from saying when the woman was admitted to the hospital, if she was thought to have coronavirus at the time and if medical staff and others in the hospital are being contacted or tested for the disease.

Gov. Jared Polis, who held a news conference Friday in Colorado Springs at which the death was announced, said the woman lived by herself and had not been in a nursing home or assisted living facility.