El Paso County leads the state in coronavirus deaths because of less-than-optimal adherence to the statewide stay-at-home order, as well as bridge tournaments about a month ago attended by the county’s first fatality, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said at a Monday press conference.

“We want to make sure we see greater support for compliance for staying at home in El Paso County,” Polis said when asked why the county leads the state in number of coronavirus deaths: 11 as of Sunday.

He also cited attendance of an apparently coronavirus-positive woman at bridge tournaments in Colorado Springs from late February through early March as a factor in the county’s death count. A man who played bridge with the woman also became infected, according to public health officials, who haven’t provided further information on how many more, if any, deaths are linked to the tournament.

RELATED: A Breakdown of COVID-19 Cases in Colorado, as of 3/30/20

Total diagnoses in the state sit at 2,627, Polis said, up from 2,307 cases Sunday. Deaths are now at 51, up from 47 Sunday. See a breakdown by age and location here.

The closure of bars, restaurants and schools earlier in the month appears to be slowing virus’s spread, he said. At its peak, the rate of positive tests was doubling every one and a half to two days. The doubling time has slowed to every five days, Polis said.

“It it still an extremely contagious virus, which shows why just closing bars and restaurants wasn’t enough,” he said.

The spread’s slow will “buy us a little more time,” Polis said, “but we really have to drive that further,” hence his reason for issuing a statewide stay-at-home order on Wednesday.

RELATED: A Breakdown of COVID-19 Cases in Colorado, as of 3/30/20

“The more we can say at home, the more effective these measures will be, and the sooner we can return to being able to support ourselves and earn a paycheck,” he said.

Once the order is lifted, “the new world won’t look exactly like the old world,” he cautioned, saying that whether the order is lifted on April 11 as originally expected or April 30, life won’t immediately return to normal.

He also said it was “very unlikely” that K-12 schools would resume in-person classes this school year.

RELATED: A Breakdown of COVID-19 Cases in Colorado, as of 3/30/20

The state has seen a 60% reduction in road traffic from a baseline four weeks ago, a drop Polis called “significant.” But he said traffic isn’t a perfect proxy for social activity and cautioned that the dip in movement is insufficient.

“The more people stay at home, the sooner we can squash this virus,” he said, calling the pandemic the “greatest public health crisis since the Spanish flu of 1918.”

He asked Coloradans to enjoy outdoor time in their neighborhoods and no further.

“The mountains, trails are going to be there for millennia, they’re going to be there long after you’re here,” he said. “Let’s recreate in our neighborhoods.

RELATED: A Breakdown of COVID-19 Cases in Colorado, as of 3/30/20

The federal disaster declaration for Colorado approved by President Donald Trump this weekend will serve as a “prerequisite to greater emergency assistance,” Polis said, adding that he spoke with both the president and vice president Monday morning.

He struck a cautiously optimistic note at Monday’s press conference, quoting a New Testament verse on “faith, hope and love” and saying that, in the end, “love will win.”

“It’s really about faith in science, faith in the almighty, it’s about hope,” he said. “We will get through this together. Most of us are going to get through this just fine, though most of us won’t be strangers to loss.”

Dr. Marc Moss, director of pulmonology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, also spoke at the press conference, saying his hospital was caring for an “unprecedented number of critically ill patients.”

RELATED: A Breakdown of COVID-19 Cases in Colorado, as of 3/30/20

As of Monday morning, the hospital had 72 coronavirus patients, 37 of whom were critically ill, and 33 of whom were on mechanical ventilators. The patients are, on average, in their 40s and 50s, some as young as 19. Many had no underlying health issues, he said.

New coronavirus patients are being admitted faster than older cases recover, he said, adding that patients requiring a ventilator require an average use time of two weeks or more.

“We’ve never witnessed anything like this before in our lifetimes,” he said.

Colorado is beginning to see health care providers test positive for the virus, Moss said, adding that more than 50 Italian doctors have died caring for coronavirus patients.

He said he’d “never been prouder” of the work of his colleagues. “You’d be honored to witness their extraordinary efforts.”

He closed with a text message he received from a friend who lives in Colorado but flew to New York when her mother became ill with the virus.

“Within a 12 hour span I lost my dad and mom,” he read. “This has been a sci fi horror film. More when we meet again. Please be safe.”

RELATED: A Breakdown of COVID-19 Cases in Colorado, as of 3/30/20