Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
Coloradans 65 and older are now receiving vaccine shots after suffering the worst of both direct, and indirect, effects from COVID-19.
In 2020, COVID-19 ravaged the state s nursing homes, forcing an end to visitation by family and friends and lockdowns of residents. That in turn appears to have contributed to a hidden toll from the disease for some Colorado seniors.
Starvation.
As many as 100 more seniors than expected, most of them in nursing homes, essentially stopped eating in 2020 and died of what is clinically termed nutritional deficiencies on state death certificates.
COVID-19 has now officially claimed more than 5,500 Colorado lives, but as state health officials finish compiling records from the deadliest year in state history, hundreds of additional deaths, which appear to have at least an arm’s length connection to the pandemic, are becoming apparent.