UCHealth COVID-19 hospitalizations remain steady as Colorado’s climb

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reports Colorado’s COVID-19 hospitalizations are up more than 15% this week.

As of Wednesday, the state reported 28 new hospital admissions for confirmed COVID-19 cases, up from 18 a week earlier. Officials report that nearly 31% of adults are in critical care on ventilators, and 3% of available hospital beds are occupied by confirmed and suspected coronavirus patients.

But doctors in El Paso County say their hospital admissions are not following the state's general trend.

"Despite a bit of a rise in the younger population and older population spikes, we're doing okay," said Dr. David Steinbruner, the chief medical officer for UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central and Memorial Hospital North.

Steinbruner says they currently have about a dozen admissions in their hospitals, a lower figure than the nearly 54 hospitalizations during the county's peak in April.

But he says the upcoming flu season, along with a rise in COVID-19 cases has him most concerned about an increase in hospitalizations in El Paso County.

"If a lot of people aren't taking the vaccine or the vaccine isn't effective, then what may happen is you may get a lot of people hospitalized and then on top of that with a rise in COVID, that would start to strain the system," Steinbruner said.

As for what age group is getting sick enough to require hospital care, he says it's not necessarily just the older or at-risk population.

"It's not 100 percent; there are people who are young and seemingly healthy who get a very bad case of COVID and then some who succumb to it despite the fact that they don't have a lot of preconditions," Steinbruner said.

Typically, he says hospital stays are getting shorter and less severe, with fewer people on ventilators or in the intensive care units.