This Is How Much COVID Cases Have Gone Down in Colorado

On January 31, Mayor Michael Hancock announced that Denver's face-covering order to combat the spread of COVID would expire at the end of February 3, and both the Tri-County Health Department and Jefferson County Public Health are poised to follow suit.

During Hancock's press conference, Denver Department of Public Health & Environment executive director Bob McDonald stressed that the decision to set aside the mask mandate for indoor public spaces was driven by data, and the latest figures from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment bears out this statement. While many of the stats remain high from a historical perspective, they've dropped substantially over the past week or so.

Here are the COVID statistics in major categories, as updated by the CDPHE after 4 p.m. January 31. They're juxtaposed with information from our previous COVID data roundup, which drew from January 24 figures:

1,253,042 cases (up 44,870 from January 24)
26,642 variants of concern (up 147 from January 24)
64 counties (unchanged since January 24)
56,883 hospitalized (up 1,371 from January 24)
11,115 deaths among cases (up 268 from January 24)
11,554 deaths due to COVID-19 (up 235 from January 24)
8,011 outbreaks (up 163 from January 24)

Four takeaways:

• The number of new COVID cases in Colorado dropped from 74,497 for the week ending January 24 to 44,870 over the subsequent seven days. Even if the official count excludes a huge percentage of overall infections, as the CDPHE admits, that's still a substantial improvement.

• New hospitalizations are down, too, from 1,624 on January 24 to 1,371 on January 31.

• Deaths among cases of COVID-19 actually bumped up from 188 on January 24 to 268 on January 31. But since fatality statistics tend to lag behind those of cases and hospitalizations, this likely represents the tail end of the last wave.

• The pace of outbreaks has slowed. The state health department added 163 as of January 31, nearly sixty fewer than the 214 on January 24.

Daily COVID case counts over the last ten-day period are lower as well. While five of the ten days from January 14 and January 23 exceeded 10,000 new cases, there were no 10,000-plus days between January 21 and January 30:

January 30 — 2,604 Cases
January 29 — 3,386 Cases
January 28 — 4,966 Cases
January 27 — 6,871 Cases
January 26 — 8,546 Cases
January 25 — 7,143 Cases
January 24 — 6,579 Cases
January 23 — 6,559 Cases
January 22 — 6,439 Cases
January 21 — 9,353 Cases

The Omicron variant of COVID once again dominated the samples sequenced by the CDPHE during the week of January 9, the most recent for which numbers are available; the Delta variant accounted for just .59 percent of the total. The state's positivity rate of 16.42 on January 31 is still more than triple the 5 percent officials prefer not to surpass, but it isn't nearly as high as the 23.23 percent registered on January 24. And although ICU bed availability statewide tightened a bit over the last week, going from 148 on January 24 to 140 on January 31, the situation remains generally stable.

Meanwhile, new hospital admissions have receded from a seven-day average of 250 on January 24 to 173 on January 31, and the overall number of patients hospitalized for the disease has gone from above 1,600 to under 1,400 during that same span. Here's the rundown:

New Hospital Admissions by Admission Date

January 31, 2022
77 Patients Admitted to the Hospital
173 Seven-Day Average Patients Admitted to the Hospital

January 30, 2022
75 Patients Admitted to the Hospital
197 Seven-Day Average Patients Admitted to the Hospital

January 29, 2022
119 Patients Admitted to the Hospital
206 Seven-Day Average Patients Admitted to the Hospital

January 28, 2022
232 Patients Admitted to the Hospital
206 Seven-Day Average Patients Admitted to the Hospital

January 27, 2022
238 Patients Admitted to the Hospital
224 Seven-Day Average Patients Admitted to the Hospital

January 26, 2022
215 Patients Admitted to the Hospital
238 Seven-Day Average Patients Admitted to the Hospital

January 25, 2022
253 Patients Admitted to the Hospital
261 Seven-Day Average Patients Admitted to the Hospital

January 24, 2022
249 Patients Admitted to the Hospital
268 Seven-Day Average Patients Admitted to the Hospital

January 23, 2022
139 Patients Admitted to the Hospital
257 Seven-Day Average Patients Admitted to the Hospital

January 22, 2022
116 Patients Admitted to the Hospital
263 Seven-Day Average Patients Admitted to the Hospital

Patients Currently Hospitalized for COVID-19

January 31, 2022
1,351 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,300 (96 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
51 (4 percent) Persons Under Investigation

January 30, 2022
1,382 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,337 (97 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
45 (3 percent) Persons Under Investigation

January 29, 2022
1,394 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,350 (97 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
44 (3 percent) Persons Under Investigation

January 28, 2022
1,417 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,363 (96 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
54 (4 percent) Persons Under Investigation

January 27, 2022
1,492 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,444 (97 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
48 (3 percent) Persons Under Investigation

January 26, 2022
1,581 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,526 (97 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
55 (3 percent) Persons Under Investigation

January 25, 2022
1,608 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,547 (96 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
61 (4 percent) Persons Under Investigation

January 24, 2022
1,644 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,581 (96 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
63 (4 percent) Persons Under Investigation

January 23, 2022
1,651 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,595 (97 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
56 (3 percent) Persons Under Investigation

January 22, 2022
1,636 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,583 (97%) Confirmed COVID-19
53 (3 percent) Persons Under Investigation

One more piece of good news: The CDPHE's vaccine data dashboard reveals a quicker rate of increase for Coloradans who've received at least one dose (from 21,282 for the week of January 23 to 60,473 on January 30) and those considered fully immunized (from 14,955 for the week of January 23 to 41,430 on January 30). These gains help mitigate flagging daily numbers on view below.

3,915,052 people fully immunized in Colorado (up 41,430 from January 23)
4,372,558 people immunized with at least one dose (up 60,473 from January 23)
599 people vaccinated on January 30 with Pfizer vaccine (down 53 from January 23); 1,238 immunizations with Pfizer vaccine reported January 30 but administered on an earlier date (down 65 from January 23)
521 people immunized on January 30 with Moderna vaccine (down 17 from January 23); 1,071 immunizations with Moderna vaccine reported January 30 but administered on an earlier date (down 256 from January 23)
30 people vaccinated on January 30 with Janssen (J&J) vaccine (down 2 from January 23); 20 immunizations with Janssen vaccine reported January 30 but administered on an earlier date (down 73 from January 23)

Colorado has been on the COVID rollercoaster long enough for residents to understand that upbeat developments can quickly head downhill. But for now, things are definitely looking up.