Why El Paso County is seeing decreasing COVID-19 numbers

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- Over the last two weeks, El Paso County has seen a steady decrease of COVID-19 cases.

Between August 13 and the 27, there were 564 cases, compared to the two weeks previous where 950 cases were reported, but county health officials warn, "it's not a signal to go back to normal."

Program Manager for Communicable Disease and Tuberculosis, Kimberly Pattison explains the public is doing what's needed to decrease cases.

"We know that we have a lot more people in the community wearing masks and we have seen more normalization around social distancing and gathering in smaller groups," she said, but the work isn't over.

"While we are encouraged by those case numbers, this is the time to double down on some of those precautions," Pattison explains.

The number of hospitalization for the virus has also decreased by nearly 50%. In the last 14 days, 26 people have been hospitalized for COVID-19, compared to the two weeks before 48 hospitalizations.

Pattison and other county health leaders are looking ahead to the Labor Day Weekend.

"Even though we're hopeful now I think it's pretty likely that we'll see a little bit of an increase after Labor Day," she explained.

Despite the stabilizing numbers, health officials say they don't anticipate any changes to current variances in El Paso County.