More than 1,411,500 people in Colorado have tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 62,400 have been hospitalized as of Monday afternoon, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
Click here for the latest update on the number of cases, the age, gender and location of presumptive positive, indeterminate and confirmed cases from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
Below, we're updating this blog with the latest information regarding COVID-19 in Colorado.
Latest updates:
Friday, May 20
5:07 p.m. | Jefferson County moves to medium COVID-19 community risk, masks now mandated in certain settings
Jefferson County residents will now be required to wear a face mask in certain settings due to a rise in COVID-19 cases, the county's public health department announced Friday.
Masking is now required in non-medical congregate settings serving at-risk populations, which include homeless shelters, prisons, jails, community corrections, substance use and day treatment programs, and adult day centers and day programs, Jefferson County Public Health said in a news release.
The mandates are now in effect after the county moved to level medium under current CDC guidelines. The county reported 214.62 cases per 100,000 people over the last 7 days and 6.4 hospital admissions per 100,000 people over the same period. Current guidelines state counties over 200 cases per 100,000 people and less than 10 new admissions over a period of 7 days should be considered "medium" risk and additional measures need to be considered.
Healthcare settings must also now require masking from residents, according to the release.
“Though we never want to see additional cases in our community, this shift was not unexpected, as more contagious variants such as the BA.2.12.1 variant have spread across the country, state and our county,” said Dr. Sarah Rowan, medical director at Jefferson County Public Health (JCPH). “While JCPH will continue to monitor trends — and keep our community up-to-date with what to expect and when — we anticipate that we’ll see higher levels of disease spread in Jeffco for at least another month. We are hopeful that by the end of June, we will start to see cases heading back in the right direction.”
Among the recommendations to keep yourself and others safe as cases continue to increase:
- Get vaccinated and stay up-to-date on your COVID-19 vaccinations
- Get tested before gathering with someone at high risk of severe disease, hospitalization, or death due to COVID-19
- Increase the airflow and ventilation in indoor environments by opening windows or using HEPA filters to improve air quality inside your home, or if gathering, move activities outdoors
- Wear a well-fitted, high-quality medical-grade mask
- Wash your hands thoroughly for at least 20 seconds
- Follow the CDC's isolation and quarantine guidelines if you test positive
“While the community has experienced a recent respite from COVID-19’s toll, we know that this virus is here to stay in our community. That means that at times additional precautions need to be taken during times of higher transmission to best protect against the kinds of disease spread, severe illness and loss we saw during the last two years,” said Christine Billings, interim director of Emergency Preparedness and Infectious Disease at JCPH. “We have the tools to control COVID-19 infections in Jeffco, and we’ve all gotten very good at using them. We’ve seen how bad it can get, and together, we can keep it from getting there again.”
4 p.m. | Latest coronavirus data
Here's the latest COVID-19 data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
1,418,901 cases (+2,268)
62,635 hospitalized (+49)
64 counties (+0)
4,899,853 people tested (+2,546)
17,731,104 test encounters (+23,950)
12,519 deaths among cases (+4)
13,298 deaths due to COVID-19 (+13)
8,820 outbreaks (+8)
The latest hospital data, which the state is now updating only on Wednesdays, shows 144 beds in use by patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19, 28 more than a week ago. Colorado’s seven-day average positivity rate was 9.19%. The state’s goal is to remain below 5%.
As of Friday, 4,479,404 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine in Colorado and 4,044,772 have been fully vaccinated.
Thursday, May 19
4 p.m. | Latest coronavirus data
Here's the latest COVID-19 data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
1,416,633 cases (+1,843)
62,586 hospitalized (+64)
64 counties (+0)
4,897,307 people tested (+2,278)
17,707,154 test encounters (+21,411)
12,515 deaths among cases (-1)
13,285 deaths due to COVID-19 (+2)
8,812 outbreaks (+18)
The latest hospital data, which the state is now updating only on Wednesdays, shows 144 beds in use by patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19, 28 more than a week ago. Colorado’s seven-day average positivity rate was 8.97%. The state’s goal is to remain below 5%.
As of Thursday, 4,478,767 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine in Colorado and 4,044,223 have been fully vaccinated.
3:26 p.m. | CDPHE to update COVID-19 hospital reporting to include reason for hospitalization
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) will update its COVID-19 hospital data to improve COVID-19 reporting among hospitalizations as part of today’s regular 4 p.m. data update.
"In order to improve data transparency and provide the public with better hospitalization information, CDPHE requested and began receiving additional data about COVID hospitalizations from hospitals and health systems. Previously, CDPHE received only discharge diagnosis, which became available several days after discharge and could not offer timely insight into the status of currently hospitalized patients," a spokesperson for the department said in a news release Thursday.
Here's how the data will be broken down:
- Hospitalized for COVID if one of the first two billing diagnosis codes includes “COVID-19,” “pneumonia due to coronavirus disease 2019,” or “pneumonia due to SARS-associated coronavirus.”
- Hospitalized with COVID if the patient tested positive for COVID-19 but neither of their first two billing diagnosis codes is listed in section (1.)
- Presumptive for COVID if discharge diagnosis includes one of the less-specific COVID-19-related diagnosis codes. The admission diagnosis code is used if the patient has not yet been discharged.
- Presumptive with COVID if the patient has tested positive for COVID-19 but has not been admitted to the hospital for the reasons listed in section (3.)
- Unknown if none of these fields are complete.
Wednesday, May 18
4 p.m. | Latest coronavirus data
Here's the latest COVID-19 data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
1,414,790 cases (+1,756)
62,565 hospitalized (+64)
64 counties (+0)
4,895,029 people tested (+2,169)
17,685,743 test encounters (+17,296)
12,516 deaths among cases (+4)
13,283 deaths due to COVID-19 (+3)
8,794 outbreaks (+0)
The latest hospital data, which the state is now updating only on Wednesdays, shows 144 beds in use by patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19, 28 more than a week ago. Colorado’s seven-day average positivity rate was 8.68%. The state’s goal is to remain below 5%.
As of Wednesday 4,478,228 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine in Colorado and 4,043,731 have been fully vaccinated.
Tuesday, May 17
4 p.m. | Latest coronavirus data
Here's the latest COVID-19 data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
1,413,034 cases (+1,476)
62,501 hospitalized (+37)
64 counties (+0)
4,892,860 people tested (+1,888)
17,668,447 test encounters (+10,456)
12,512 deaths among cases (-6)
13,280 deaths due to COVID-19 (+5)
8,794 outbreaks (+19)
The latest hospital data, which the state is now updating only on Wednesdays, shows 116 beds in use by patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19, 6 more than a week ago. Colorado’s seven-day average positivity rate was 8.80%. The state’s goal is to remain below 5%.
As of Tuesday, 4,477,513 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine in Colorado and 4,043,102 have been fully vaccinated.
Monday, May 16
4 p.m. | Latest coronavirus data
Here's the latest COVID-19 data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. A reminder that today's state data is an aggregate from the weekend as well as Monday's.
1,411,558 cases (+4,153)
62,464 hospitalized (+13)
64 counties (+0)
4,890,972 people tested (+5,256)
17,657,991 test encounters (+49,570)
12,518 deaths among cases (+5)
13,275 deaths due to COVID-19 (+6)
8,775 outbreaks (+10)
The latest hospital data, which the state is now updating only on Wednesdays, shows 116 beds in use by patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19, 6 more than a week ago. Colorado’s seven-day average positivity rate was 8.61%. The state’s goal is to remain below 5%.
As of Monday, 4,476,759 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine in Colorado and 4,042,400 have been fully vaccinated.
Click here for the COVID-19 live blog for May 9-May 15, 2022.
