Colorado’s hospital bed capacity at an all-time low

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Colorado State Epidemiologist Rachel Herlihy says the seven-day average for available beds in Colorado currently sits at 759.  As of Tuesday, 1,426 patients were being hospitalized with COVID-19. 

Herlihy says Colorado’s current health care system can accommodate around 2,000 to 2,200 beds for COVID-19 patients. 

“We really are at an all-time low for hospital beds that are available in the state currently” says Herlihy. 

During Colorado’s peak surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations last fall, there were more hospitalizations at the peak than right now. However, Herlihy says fewer beds are available at this time.

“There are a variety of factors going into this. Most notably, people have gone back to normal life,” said Herlihy. “We are seeing higher rates of trauma, higher rates of chronic disease. There is much more demand on our hospitals than just COVID at this point.”

Currently in El Paso County, there are 224 confirmed COVID hospitalizations. This time last year, the number was at 120. 

The state’s top epidemiologist says COVID-19 cases, positive tests, hospitalizations, and deaths have all been increasing since August, all fueled by the Delta variant.

Herlihy says vaccine effectiveness against hospitalizations remains high, calling the recent surge in COVID cases in Colorado, ‘the pandemic of the unvaccinated’. 

Health officials say hospitalizations are predominately those that are unvaccinated, and that those that received the vaccine are 8.9 times less likely to be hospitalized with COVID symptoms. 

Additionally, health officials believe booster doses could play a key role in keeping hospitalizations down. Gov. Jared Polis signed an Executive Order permitting any one above the age of 18 to get an additional shot six months after their first completed vaccine. 

“[Booster shots] could potentially get us back to a place where we are less likely to exceed our hospital capacity,” said Herlihy.