COLORADO SPRINGS — Gov. Jared Polis provided an update on the state's response to COVID-19 and updated modeling Thursday afternoon. The governor urged Coloradans to follow health guidelines and emphasized that the spread of COVID-19 in the state is much faster than modeling predicted.
Dr. Rachel Herlihy joined the governor Thursday after to address rapidly rising cases and increasing hospitalizations. She said the state is seeing its highest case count than the beginning of the pandemic. Polis said there are currently 894 people hospitalized due to the virus, the highest it has been since the pandemic began.
Herlihy presented data showing when the state will exceed ICU capacity. With less social distancing and more group gatherings, the data projects the state would exceed capacity in late December.
This follows his press conference last week where the governor addressed increasing hospitalizations statewide and that they must be able to serve all patients, not just COVID-19 patients. The daily count of admissions is at its highest since April 29, according to data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
New COVID-19 modeling data predicted the state of Colorado will exceed the April peak in hospitalizations within the next few months if Coloradans don’t act quickly to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The projection, which was released by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Colorado School of Public Health toward the end of October, warned the window to improve transmission control of the virus should happen over the next several weeks, otherwise we would see stress in critical care capacity across the state.
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