DENVER — A total of 76.5% of Colorado's population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 69.1% is fully vaccinated, according to the latest data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE).
Statewide, there were 323 patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 as of June 14, and there have been an average of 1,961 new cases of the virus per day over the last seven days.
Hospitalizations are a key metric for health officials since they indicate whether the healthcare system is being overwhelmed by the virus. Since vaccines have become widely available, doctors have said the vast majority of new COVID-19 hospitalizations are people who have not received a shot.
Variants
Over the last week that data was collected, about 23.87% of tested COVID-19 samples in Colorado were the so-called "stealth" omicron variant, and the rest were other omicron variants.
The BA.2 variant is often informally referred to as “stealth" omicron because it has genetic mutations that could make it harder to detect through testing, the American Medical Association says.
BA.2 may be more contagious than the original version of omicron, as it appears to have a “faster growth rate,” 9NEWS Medical Expert Dr. Payal Kohli said. Medical experts believe BA.2 is about 1.5 times more transmissible than BA.1, Saralyn Mark, M.D., former senior medical advisor to the White House and American Medical Women's Association COVID-19 Lead, added.
The omicron variant was detected in November in the region of southern Africa.
On Dec. 2, Colorado's first case of the omicron variant was detected in Arapahoe County.
Colorado was the third state to detect the omicron variant.
Vaccines
Everyone in Colorado who is 6 months old or older is now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
Of those who were eligible before vaccines were approved to children younger than 5, 82.75% have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 74.72% are fully vaccinated, according to CDPHE data. CDPHE has not started including the youngest age group in their eligibility numbers.
About 36.2% of Coloradans have received an additional booster dose of the vaccine.
The pie chart below shows Colorado's vaccination progress:
Colorado received its first shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 14, 2020. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in December authorized emergency use for both the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine. Both were shown to be around 95% effective in clinical trials and require two doses. Johnson & Johnson's vaccine was granted emergency use authorization on Feb. 27, 2021. It was shown to be 86% effective at preventing severe disease and requires one dose.
On Friday, June 17, the FDA expanded emergency use authorization for the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to include children between 5 years and 6 months old.
The FDA also authorized Moderna's vaccine for school-aged children and teens. Pfizer's shots had previously been the only ones available for those ages.
Hospitalizations
The graph below, which is updated weekly, shows the number of people currently hospitalized with a COVID-19 diagnosis.
This includes both those people who are in the hospital because of COVID-19 and those who are in the hospital for another reason and then tested positive after they were admitted.
Another indicator of whether hospitals are being overwhelmed by the virus is ICU capacity.
The graph below show the percentage of ICU beds that are currently in use.
In the week of May 22, the hospitalization rate among people who are vaccinated with three doses of a vaccine was 1.6 COVID-19 hospitalizations per 100,000 people, according to CDPHE. The case hospitalization rate among people who are not vaccinated was 3.9 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people during the same week.
Cases
See a graph of new cases by day below.
This chart is updated weekly.
In the week of May 29, the the case incidence rate among people who had received three doses of a vaccine was 298.9 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, according to CDPHE. The case incidence rate among people who are not vaccinated was 266.2 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people during the same week.
The number of new cases reported in a single day previously first peaked on Nov. 12, 2020 with 6,801 Coloradans testing positive for COVID-19. That was surpassed on Dec. 28, 2021 when 7,072 cases were reported. Daily case counts continued to climb dramatically until reaching a second peak of 19,424 Coloradans testing positive on Jan. 6, 2022.
Positivity
See Colorado's latest positivity rate in the graphic below.
This chart is updated weekly.
Positivity is the number of tests that come back with a COVID-19 result. Above 10% could be an indicator that not enough testing is being done and that only people likely to have COVID are getting tested. The World Health Organization recommended in May 2020 that the positivity rate should be even lower, 5%, to contain the virus.
Fatalities
CDPHE reports there have been:
- 12,678 deaths among people with COVID-19
- 13,349 deaths due to COVID-19
It's worth mentioning that deaths are a lagging metric, meaning that there are often multiple days between when someone dies and when that information is distributed to health officials.
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