DENVER — Colorado health officials provided an update Friday afternoon on the latest on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) COVID-19 Incident Commander Scott Bookman, State Epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy and Division of Disease Control and Public Health Response Deputy Director Diana Herrero all talked during the news conference on the latest COVID-19 trends.
During the news conference, health officials said cases in Colorado remain low.
"Cases overall in Colorado continue to stay low," Herlihy said at the news conference on Friday.
She said that even though average cases have increased, cases are below what we saw during the omicron waves.
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"The number right now is at 605, to put that in perspective a couple of weeks ago at really the lowest number of cases that we've had in many many weeks we were down to 300 cases a week, so we have seen a doubling there in a couple of weeks but obviously still well below what we saw during the omicron wave or previous wave."
Health officials said the slight increase in cases are driven by subvariants of the omicron variant, including the BA2 variant and the BA2.12.1 variant.
"Most of what's circulating in Colorado is the BA2," Herlihy said.
The BA2.12.1 variant is different from the omicron and BA2 variant because it is more transmissible but there is no increase in severity, health officials said. There is very limited data on the immune response.
With a slight increase in cases, health officials are reminding Coloradans that vaccinations continue to be the best way to protect themselves against COVID-19. More than four million Coloradans are fully vaccinated, but there are many who have not received their booster shots, Herrero said.
"Data shows that people who have received three doses of COVID vaccine have substantial protection against the worst outcome of COVID, including serve disease and hospitalization, and death," Herrero said.
Herrero said Coloradans can go to covid19.colorado.gov/vaccine-calculator to see how many follow-up doses they need for the highest level of protection against COVID-19.
On Monday, a federal judge in Florida voided the national mandate covering airplanes and other public transportation as exceeding the authority of U.S. health officials in the coronavirus pandemic.
The Justice Department is filing an appeal seeking to overturn the decision, officials said Wednesday. The appeal process could take months.
The CDC said in a statement Wednesday that it is its "continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health."
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