Contact: Nicole Valentine, Summit County Public Health

SUMMIT COUNTY – Penrose-St. Francis Health Services and Summit County Public Health have confirmed the fourth death from COVID-19 of a Summit County resident.

A 47-year-old Summit County man died December 7, at Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs, from respiratory failure due to COVID-19, with other significant conditions. The man tested positive for COVID-19 prior to his death. He had been transferred from Summit County to Penrose Hospital via Flight For Life.

“It saddens us to lose anyone in our community to this disease, and we extend our deep condolences to his family,” Summit County Public Health Director Amy Wineland said. 

With the addition of this case, Summit County now counts four deaths among people who died from COVID-19. Summit County has counted two additional deaths among people who were positive for COVID-19 and died of other causes.

Summit County receives information on deaths among cases with COVID-19 from the state CEDRS database. Deaths due to COVID-19 come from CDPHE vital statistics. Based on what is written on the death certificate and in what order, a single underlying cause of death for vital statistics purposes is chosen based on an algorithm and sent back to CDPHE Vital Statistics. There is often a lag between when the death certificate is filed and when the causes of death are determined.

The data on the CDPHE website for deaths due to COVID-19 is directly from the National Center for Health Statistics Website (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/covid-19.htm). 

Summit County will not release any further information about these deaths.

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