Recently it has been reported by the Colorado Department of Health that Monarch Mountain is currently an official outbreak site. The State’s website reports that Monarch Mountain has had 14 positive cases of Coronavirus. This is somewhat misleading information. Indeed, there have been 14 positive cases of people who are employed at Monarch Mountain, but most, if not all of these cases have not come from the Monarch Mountain campus. All have derived from places outside of work. Half of them from a party at someone’s home and others from being a roommate of someone who works somewhere other than Monarch. We have employed our own Infectious Disease consultants to work hand in hand with the Chaffee County Health Department in the contact tracing of each and every one of these cases to ensure that none of them enter onto our campus until they are fully cleared by the Health Department. In short, we have been effective in preventing any outbreak at Monarch Mountain. These “community” outbreaks are surely concerning, but I assure you that we are doing everything in our power to ensure that our environment is protective of your and our staff’s health. We are proud of what we have collectively been able to accomplish thus far.
“Monarch Mountain and Chaffee County Public Health have been working closely for many months to ensure the safest 20-21 winter season possible. While the plans established and approved by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment are clearly working to prevent the spread of the virus on the mountain, there have been several employees who have contracted the virus from outside of the work environment. This was predicted. However, the source of spread to our knowledge is not due to onsite operations but rather activities taking place off the mountain. At this time, Monarch Mountain is continuing its prevention measures while communicating with the staff the importance of strictly following the public health orders and measures outside of work.” Andrea Carlstrom, Director of Chaffee County Public Health.
We have enjoyed our collaboration with Andrea and her team and will continue evaluating how to better communicate the need for our staff to protect themselves while away from work. We firmly believe that due to the efforts and protocols we have set in place that our campus is one of the best places in all of Chaffee County to enjoy the great outdoors.
So … stay safe and stay home if you feel ill in any way. We do.
