Colorado’s COVID-19 hospitalizations and cases were stable or improving as of Monday, though it won’t be clear until later this week if the virus spread across Thanksgiving tables.
As of Monday afternoon, 1,379 people were hospitalized statewide with confirmed COVID-19, according to data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. That’s a small uptick — 11 people — from Friday.
New hospital admissions are still dropping, though, which suggests hospitalizations will continue to trend in the right direction, said Beth Carlton, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health at the Colorado School of Public Health and a member of the state’s COVID-19 modeling team.
Cases recorded in the week ending Sunday rose by more than 900 compared to the previous week — not unexpected, since a lack of testing over holidays tends to depress case counts. Fewer people tested positive than in the third week of November, however, and the percentage of tests coming back positive remained relatively stable. That suggests the situation at least isn’t getting worse.
It doesn’t mean that the good times have returned, though. Half of the hospitals reporting to the state said they expect to be short-staffed in the next week, and about 94% of intensive-care beds are full — a significant improvement from a week ago, but still well above the normal level of roughly 80% of capacity.
The overall positive trends mean that Colorado has a “window of opportunity” to drive down cases and hospitalizations before people gather for the end-of-year holidays, Carlton said.
“It’s much safer to gather when community transmission is low,” she said.
So far, there’s no sign that the new omicron variant is making much of an impact in Colorado. The state has only confirmed two cases, both in people who recently had traveled to southern Africa. The variant has spread quickly around the world, reaching at least 18 states and more than 50 countries, and may be driving a spike in cases in South Africa.
Early data from South Africa suggests omicron may be more contagious than the delta variant, which currently accounts for almost all COVID-19 cases in Colorado. A small study of 166 people with omicron found they generally had mild symptoms, but it was a young group, so that may not reflect the risk to those who are at a higher risk for severe disease.
Experts believe that vaccines will continue to be effective at preventing severe disease from omicron, and that people who have received a booster shot will have more protection. The world is still waiting for data on whether the level of protection from vaccines takes any hit from the new variant, though.
While omicron isn’t widespread in Colorado at this point and the flu season has been mild so far, it’s a good idea to get vaccinated against both viruses, and get a COVID-19 booster if enough time has passed, Carlton said. While the hospital situation is improving, there isn’t much spare capacity to deal with a patient influx.
“We don’t want to layer omicron on top of everything,” she said.
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