Historic Lows for COVID Cases, Hospitalizations in Colorado

Only 46 positive cases of COVID-19 were reported in the state on March 6, according to the most recent statistics from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. That's the lowest number since the start of the pandemic two years ago, and recent figures related to new hospital admissions for COVID have hit historic lows, too.

Here are the current COVID numbers in major categories, as updated by the CDPHE after 4 p.m. March 7, along with information from our previous COVID data roundup, which drew from February 28 statistics.

1,320,644 cases (up 6,865 from February 28)
28,091 variants of concern (unchanged from February 28)
64 counties (unchanged from February 28)
60,219 hospitalized (up 265 from February 28)
11,826 deaths among cases (up 54 from February 28)
12,641 deaths due to COVID-19  (up 133 from February 28)
8,404 outbreaks (up 64 from February 28)

Four takeaways:

• The total of 6,865 new COVID cases in Colorado for the week ending March 7 was down from 7,095 the week before. While the official tally doesn't include a large number of infections that go unreported, as the CDPHE admits, the new stat still reflects improvement.

• New hospitalizations tumbled even more, going from 395 on February 28 to 265 on March 7.

• Newly confirmed deaths attributed to COVID-19, which had remained high even as other figures dropped,  showed little change from February 28 to March 7: from 132 to 133.

• Outbreaks rose by a more substantial amount: 64 on March 7, compared to 42 on February 28. The CDPHE's next update, slated for March 9, should reveal whether these are new incidents of spread or ones from the recent past, as seen in delayed reports of massive school outbreaks in Boulder County.

Back on March 5, 2020, the CDPHE reported the first cases of the coronavirus identified in Colorado: seven in all. The daily additions stayed in single digits through March 11, when they jumped to eighteen. By March 19, they'd jumped to 69 — and then kept rising. The March 6 number is the lowest in almost two years.

Here are the new-case figures for the previous ten days:

March 6 — 46 Cases
March 5 — N/A
March 4 — 83 Cases
March 3 — 175 Cases
March 2 — 227 Cases
March 1 — 348 Cases
February 28 — 479 Cases
February 27 — 330 Cases
February 26 — 511 Cases
February 25 — 825 Cases

The Omicron strain continues to be dominant, accounting for 100 percent of the samples sequenced by the CDPHE during the week of February 13, the most recent for which figures are available. Meanwhile, the state's positivity rate of 4.44 percent over the ten-day span remained beneath the 5 percent threshold that officials prefer not to exceed, and the seven-day average of 3.11 percent was even lower.

After a shortage of intensive-care unit beds at the start of the year, 244 are now open statewide. And on three of the past ten days, new hospital admissions for COVID fell beneath twenty; there were ten on February 27, eleven on March 15, and thirteen on March 7. The lowest number recorded by the CDPHE, whose new admission stats for COVID start on April 12, 2020 (167 patients were admitted that day), was nine on June 9, 2020.

At the same time, total patients hospitalized for COVID-19 tumbled from more than 400 ten days ago to a little over 300 as of March 7. Here are the details:

New Hospital Admissions by Admission Date

March 7, 2022
13 patients admitted to the hospital
36 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

March 6, 2022
30 patients admitted to the hospital
36 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

March 5, 2022
11 patients admitted to the hospital
40 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

March 4, 2022
52 patients admitted to the hospital
50 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

March 3, 2022 — N/A

March 2, 2022
74 patients admitted to the hospital
47 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

March 1, 2022
42 patients admitted to the hospital
44 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

February 28, 2022
33 patients admitted to the hospital
45 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

February 27, 2022
10 patients admitted to the hospital
44 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

February 26, 2022
55 patients admitted to the hospital
49 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

Patients Currently Hospitalized for COVID-19

March 7, 2022
305 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
265 (87 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
40 (13 percent) Persons Under Investigation

March 6, 2022
315 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
273 (87 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
42 (13 percent) Persons Under Investigation

March 5, 2022
313 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
268 (86 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
45 (14 percent) Persons Under Investigation

March 4, 2022
318 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
273 (86 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
45 (14 percent) Persons Under Investigation

March 3, 2022
335 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
283 (84 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
52 (16 percent) Persons Under Investigation

March 2, 2022
403 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
362 (90 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
41 (10 percent) Persons Under Investigation

March 1, 2022
362 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
321 (89 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
41 (11 percent) Persons Under Investigation

February 28, 2022
402 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
348 (87 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
54 (13 percent) Persons Under Investigation

February 27, 2022
420 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
369 (88 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
51 (12 percent) Persons Under Investigation

February 26, 2022
428 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
374 (87 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
54 (13 percent) Persons Under Investigation

The pace of immunizations documented on the CDPHE's vaccine data dashboard remains sluggish. The 7,102 people who gained full immunization status for the seven days ending March 6 was down from 9,736 the prior week, and the daily stats for those receiving doses of Pfizer, Moderna and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) dropped, too. The latest:

3,967,546 people fully immunized in Colorado (up 7,102 from February 27)
4,425,063 people immunized with at least one dose (up 10,825 from February 27)
34 people vaccinated on March 6 with Pfizer vaccine (down 388 from February 27); 55 immunizations with Pfizer vaccine reported March 6 but administered on an earlier date (down 490 from February 27)
105 people immunized on March 6 with Moderna vaccine (down 338 from February 27); 373 immunizations with Moderna vaccine reported March 6 but administered on an earlier date (down 310 from February 27)
7 people vaccinated on March 6 with Janssen (J&J) vaccine (down 30 from February 27); 10 immunizations with Janssen vaccine reported March 6 but administered on an earlier date (down 47 from February 27)

While the current case numbers don't provide vaccine-hesitant Coloradans with much incentive to belatedly roll up their sleeves, they come as good news for everyone as the pandemic heads into its third year.