If 900 Coloradans Are Hospitalized With COVID, It Must Be Tuesday

The latest statistics about COVID-19 collected by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment stubbornly refuse to show a decline. Some of the current figures are slightly worse than those reported a week ago, and the state remains at the same high plateau that's been acknowledged by Governor Jared Polis during several recent updates about the spread of the disease.

For example, over 900 Coloradans have been in the hospital with COVID-19 every day for more than a month. The most recent date under that threshold was September 3, when the hospitalization total was 892.

Here are the most recent CDPHE stats in major categories, updated after 4 p.m. on October 4. They're juxtaposed with information from our previous COVID-19 survey, which tracked data from September 27.

678,655 cases (up 13,186 from September 27)
31,778 variants of concern (up, 2,748 from September 27)
2,643 variants under investigation (up 19 from September 27)
64 counties (unchanged since September 27)
38,878 hospitalized (up 664 from September 27)
7,626 deaths among cases (up 123 from September 27)
7,922 deaths due to COVID-19 (up 114 from September 27)
6,160 outbreaks (up 61 from September 27)

Four major takeaways:

• The number of new COVID-19 cases ratcheted up from 12,004 for the week ending September 27 to 13,186 for the week ending October 4.

• Hospitalizations: The bump of 664 for the week ending October 4 surpassed the increase of 595 on September 27.

• New outbreaks dipped significantly, though: 87 on September 27, compared to 61 on October 4.

• Still, COVID-19 fatalities are climbing. Patients with COVID who died went from 98 in the seven days leading up to September 27 to 123 on October 4, while deaths directly attributed to COVID-19 rose from 98 on September 27 to 114 on October 4.

Over the past ten days, September 29 broke through the 2,000-case barrier, and other days came close — with none reporting fewer than 1,000 new cases. Here's the rundown:

October 3 — 1,033 Cases
October 2 — 1,304 Cases
October 1 — 1,686 Cases
September 30 — 1,983 Cases
September 29 — 2,048 Cases
September 28 — 1,499 Cases
September 27 — 1,532 Cases
September 26 — 1,031 Cases
September 25 — 1,273 Cases
September 24 — 1,993 Cases

The Delta variant of COVID-19 remains dominant; for the week ending September 19, the most recent for which data is available, it was responsible for 100 percent of the new cases. Meanwhile, the state positivity rate is well above the 5 percent level officials see as a warning sign: On October 4, it stood at 8.63 percent, compared to 7.24 percent on September 27. As for the seven-day average positivity rate, it rose from 5.91 percent on September 27 to 6.84 percent on October 4.

Here are the hospitalization specifics:

New Hospital Admissions by Admission Date

October 4, 2021
142 patients admitted to the hospital
94 seven-day average of patients admitted to the hospital

October 3, 2021
31 patients admitted to the hospital
88 seven-day average of patients admitted to the hospital

October 2, 2021
25 patients admitted to the hospital
90 seven-day average of patients admitted to the hospital

October 1, 2021
108 patients admitted to the hospital
93 seven-day average of patients admitted to the hospital

September 30, 2021
122 patients admitted to the hospital
94 seven-day average of patients admitted to the hospital

September 29, 2021
124 patients admitted to the hospital
92 seven-day average of patients admitted to the hospital

September 28, 2021
105 patients admitted to the hospital
96 seven-day average of patients admitted to the hospital

September 27, 2021
102 patients admitted to the hospital
96 seven-day average of patients admitted to the hospital

September 26, 2021
45 patients admitted to the hospital
102 seven-day average of patients admitted to the hospital

September 25, 2021
42 patients admitted to the hospital
101 seven-day average of patients admitted to the hospital

Patients Currently Hospitalized for COVID-19

October 4, 2021
941 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
864 (92 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
77 (8 percent) Persons Under Investigation

October 3, 2021
909 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
829 (91 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
80 (9 percent) Persons Under Investigation

October 2, 2021
907 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
815 (90 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
92 (10 percent) Persons Under Investigation

October 1, 2021
917 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
829 (90 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
88 (10 percent) Persons Under Investigation

September 30, 2021
924 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
846 (92 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
78 (8 percent) Persons Under Investigation

September 29, 2021
956 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
865 (90 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
91 (10 percent) Persons Under Investigation

September 28, 2021
952 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
866 (91 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
86 (9 percent) Persons Under Investigation

September 27, 2021
966 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
884 (92 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
82 (8 percent) Persons Under Investigation

September 26, 2021
972 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
879 (90 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
93 (10 percent) Persons Under Investigation

September 25, 2021
959 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
871 (91 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
88 (9 percent) Persons Under Investigation

Polis continues to stress that vaccines are the path out of the pandemic — but the pace of inoculations has been slowing. The October 4 increase of 27,578 people who are fully immunized, as calculated on the CDPHE's vaccine data dashboard, is down from 30,224 counted on September 27. Likewise, those getting their first dose dipped from 27,169 on September 27 to 26,273 on October 4. And although CDPHE counts reveal that people dosed with the Moderna vaccine are experiencing fewer breakthrough cases, the inoculation total for that medication was just 228 on October 3, as opposed to 1,454 for Pfizer. But both of those stats are better than the number related to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine; it was injected into just seventeen people on that date. Here are the details:

3,478,271 people fully immunized in Colorado (up 27,578 from September 27)
3,790,965 people immunized with at least one dose (up 26,273 from September 27)
1,454 people vaccinated on October 3 with Pfizer vaccine (up 113 from September 26); 5,702 immunizations with Pfizer vaccine reported October 3 but administered on an earlier date (up 379 from September 26)
228 people immunized on October 3 with Moderna vaccine (down 47 from September 26); 809 immunizations with Moderna vaccine reported September 27 but administered on an earlier date (down 128 from September 26)
17 people vaccinated on October 3 with Janssen (J&J) vaccine (down 4 from September 26); 104 immunizations with Janssen vaccine reported September 27 but administered on an earlier date (up 38 from September 26)

Experts say that warm weather helps to keep COVID counts down, since people are able to spend more time outside, where the virus doesn't spread as efficiently. But despite the warm fall, coronavirus stats have yet to chill out.