Colorado’s weekend decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations didn’t last, with nearly 100 more people hospitalized on Wednesday than Monday.
The continued growth in hospitalizations pointed to more loss ahead, even as Colorado crossed 9,000 COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday. Deaths have climbed in recent weeks, reaching their highest levels since early January.
“I wish I had better news to report on the hospitalization front,” Scott Bookman, the state’s COVID-19 incident commander, said on a press call Wednesday, before announcing 1,526 people were receiving hospital care for the virus. The last time Colorado saw more people hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 was Dec. 11.
Hospitalizations had dropped from 1,476 on Friday to 1,431 on Monday, before losing much of that ground again on Tuesday. More than 80% of people currently hospitalized for COVID-19 aren’t fully vaccinated.
The fall 2020 wave had peaked on Dec. 1, when 1,847 people were hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19. Projections show Colorado could exceed that level and possibly run out of hospital beds by the end of December.
“We still seem to be heading very much in that direction,” Bookman said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, 566 general hospital beds and 69 intensive-care beds were available statewide. More than one-third of hospitals reporting to the state anticipated staffing shortages in the coming week.
New COVID-19 cases appear to have somewhat leveled out in the last week, but it’s likely at least part of that change came from delays in data reporting, state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said. The percentage of tests coming back positive also dropped slightly, though it’s still nearly double the state’s 5% goal.
“The overall trajectory continues to be an upward trajectory,” she said.
Outbreaks also went up this week, rising by about 12%, according to data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. As of Wednesday, the state reported 724 active outbreaks, which are defined as five or more cases linked to a common location or event. (Long-term care facilities are an exception, and must report an outbreak after two cases.)
The most common outbreak locations were:
- K-12 schools: 282 outbreaks
- Nursing homes: 98
- Assisted living facilities: 86
- Prisons, jails and other correctional facilities: 37
- Child care centers: 37
Unvaccinated people are about four times more likely to test positive than fully vaccinated people, Herlihy said. After adjusting for age differences between the vaccinated and unvaccinated populations, those who haven’t completed their primary shot series are about 10 times as likely to be hospitalized and 14 times as likely to die, she said.
Spread of the virus continues to be highest in children between 5 and 11, the group that recently became eligible for the Pfizer vaccine, followed by the adult population, Herlihy said. The youngest children continue to have the lowest rates of new cases.
Nationwide, cases are rising again after dropping throughout October, and hospitalizations have stabilized at about 47,000 after falling for weeks.
Deaths, which lag behind hospitalizations by at least two weeks, are still falling nationally. Colorado added 49 new deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total number of people who have died in the state due to the virus to 9,027.
Evidence is growing that immunity wanes in the months after vaccination or infection, so it’s a good idea to get a booster shot, Herlihy said.
Last week, Colorado became the first state to expand eligibility for boosters to anyone who had their last shot at least six months ago. (People who received the Johnson & Johnson shot are eligible after only two months.)
Arkansas, California, New Mexico and New York City have followed suit, and the Food and Drug Administration is expected to expand its booster authorization to all adults as soon as Thursday, according to The New York Times. If the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concurs, as expected, anyone at least six months out from their last shot could get another starting this weekend, regardless of where they live.
Since the end of October, Colorado officials ordered a temporarily halt to cosmetic surgeries; asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to send health care teams to hotspots; instructed hospitals to take any transferred patient they have the capacity to care for; reactivated crisis standards guiding how hospitals can stretch their workforces; and expanded access to monoclonal antibody treatments, which reduce the risk of hospitalization from COVID-19.
There are no imminent plans to activate the crisis standards of care that would allow hospitals to ration care or to order them to pause a wider range of nonemergency procedures, Bookman said. The state is in talks to bring in two more FEMA teams and to recruit additional nurses so hospitals and nursing homes can reopen up to 500 unused beds, he said.
Bookman urged anyone who hasn’t gotten vaccinated to do so quickly, and asked all Coloradans to wear masks in public and limit their close contacts by keeping gatherings small.
“There is a lot of disease in Colorado right now,” he said. “This is not going to last forever.”
"peak" - Google News
November 18, 2021 at 04:24AM
https://ift.tt/3npRfkL
Colorado’s COVID hospitalizations jump again, on track to exceed 2020 peak - The Denver Post
"peak" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2KZvTqs
https://ift.tt/2Ywz40B
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Colorado’s COVID hospitalizations jump again, on track to exceed 2020 peak - The Denver Post"
Post a Comment