Fewer than 200 intensive-care beds were available in Colorado as of Friday morning, meaning the state’s hospitals have less ability to take new patients with serious illness or injury than at any point during the pandemic.
While the virus is part of the problem, hospitals also are seeing people become seriously ill from putting off care last year, and the number of patients with injuries is back to normal levels, said Scott Bookman, the state’s COVID-19 incident commander.
“The difference between this wave and all past waves is that Coloradans have returned to living their normal lives,” he said at a news conference Friday.
The state had 197 beds in intensive-care units that weren’t in use as of Friday morning, Bookman said. That means about 12% of all ICU beds were available, as were about 16% of beds for general hospital care.
Hospitals have begun converting rooms to serve ICU patients, canceling elective procedures and shutting down non-emergency clinics so they can move staff into overstretched units, Bookman said.
Statewide, 902 people were hospitalized Friday with confirmed cases of COVID-19, which is higher than the peak of the initial spring 2020 wave, Bookman said. At the worst point of the last year, in early December, the state recorded 1,847 confirmed hospitalizations from the virus.
About 81% of the people hospitalized with COVID-19 aren’t fully vaccinated, as are 85% of those who’ve died from the virus in recent weeks.
Gov. Jared Polis called on unvaccinated people to get the shot and all Coloradans to wear masks in indoor public places, but indicated he wouldn’t reinstate any of last year’s restrictions, such as mask mandates or capacity limits at businesses.
He has repeatedly described avoiding overwhelmed hospitals as the state’s “North Star,” and the reason for the previous regulations.
“The numbers show it’s the unvaccinated who suffer the most,” Polis said. “We’re seeing needless hospitalizations. We’re seeing needless deaths.”
New vaccinations fell for the first since mid-July last week, with 76,192 people getting shots. That’s still roughly 50% more than at the low point in July, though, and the holiday weekend may have been a factor.
Colorado is in a better place than most states when it comes to new infections and hospitalizations, which are increasing at a slower rate than in much of the country, state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said.
“That doesn’t mean we’re immune,” she said. “We are seeing a continued, steady increase in hospitalizations.”
New cases appeared to be down this week, but Herlihy cautioned that it could reflect delays in reporting in the aftermath of a holiday weekend.
As of Friday afternoon, only two counties, Kiowa and San Juan, had case rates below the level where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone wear masks indoors.
Death data can lag by two weeks or longer, but it’s clear losses to COVID-19 are trending up. In the last week of August, 78 people died from COVID-19, which is more than double the 36 who died in the first week of that month.
“It’s certainly a tragedy that we’re continuing to see these deaths increase,” Herlihy said.