More Than 40 Percent of Coloradans Hospitalized for COVID Are Vaccinated

According to the latest COVID-19 data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, 42 percent of individuals hospitalized for the disease have been vaccinated against it.

This development doesn't indicate that the efficacy of vaccinations is waning: far from it. But figures show that the ongoing decline in hospitalizations — one of many metrics that continue to fall — has been much greater among unvaccinated Coloradans, likely because so many now have a degree of immunity after contracting and recovering from the virus.

Here are the COVID numbers in major categories, as updated by the CDPHE after 4 p.m. February 28, along with information from our previous COVID data roundup, which drew from February 22 statistics. Because of a 24-hour delay related to the Presidents' Day holiday, the gap between the two data dumps is six days rather than the usual seven — and the period with which they're juxtaposed spanned eight days.

1,313,779 cases (up 7,095 from February 22)
28,091 variants of concern (up 41 from February 22)
64 counties (unchanged from February 22)
59,954 hospitalized (up 395 from February 22)
11,772 deaths among cases (up 67 from February 22)
12,508 deaths due to COVID-19 (up 132 from February 22)
8,340 outbreaks (up 42 from February 22)

Four takeaways:

• The number of new COVID cases in Colorado dropped from 13,950 for the eight days through February 22 to 7,095 over the next six days. While the official tally doesn't include a large number of infections that go unreported, as the CDPHE admits, the new stat still reflects a substantial improvement in the rate of positive cases.

• New hospitalizations also fell, from 724 from February 14-22, or about 90 per day, to just 395, or approximately 66 daily, for the six days prior to February 28.

• Outbreaks are slowing, too, going from 85 new citations from February 14-22 to only 42 on February 28.

• Newly confirmed deaths attributed to COVID-19, which had remained high even as other figures tumbled, went from 264 over the eight days before February 22 to 132 through February 28. Average daily deaths in the first period were 33, and 22 in the second period.

The improvement in new daily COVID case counts is even more striking. Four days between February 12 and 21 notched more than 1,000 confirmed cases, but between February 18 to 27, that mark wasn't exceeded a single time. The progress is documented below:

February 27 — 238 Cases
February 26 — 447 Cases
February 25 — 774 Cases
February 24 — 695 Cases
February 23 — 790 Cases
February 22 — 931 Cases
February 21 — 603 Cases
February 20 — 459 Cases
February 19 — 725 Cases
February 18 — 990 Cases

The Omicron strain remains dominant in Colorado, turning up in 98.86 percent of the samples sequenced by the CDPHE for the week of February 6, the most recent for which figures are available; the Omicron 2 strain accounted for 0.81 percent, while Delta registered 0.33 percent. Meanwhile, the state's positivity rate slid from 6.34 percent on February 22 to 5.59 percent on February 28 — and the seven-day average sits at 4.01, under the 5 percent threshold targeted by health-department officials for the first time in months. And 232 intensive-care-unit beds are open statewide, more than double the total during the most concerning weeks earlier this year.

New hospital admissions for COVID-19 are still hovering between forty and fifty per day, on average, but overall hospitalizations have dipped from more than 500 to just over 400 across the most recent ten days. Here's the rundown:

New Hospital Admissions by Admission Date

February 28, 2022
30 patients admitted to the hospital
43 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

February 27, 2022
10 patients admitted to the hospital
43 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

February 26, 2022
52 patients admitted to the hospital
46 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

February 25, 2022
81 patients admitted to the hospital
45 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

February 24, 2022
32 patients admitted to the hospital
38 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

February 23, 2022
45 patients admitted to the hospital
40 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

February 22, 2022
51 patients admitted to the hospital
43 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

February 21, 2022
27 patients admitted to the hospital
43 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

February 20, 2022
36 patients admitted to the hospital
43 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

February 19, 2022
44 patients admitted to the hospital
45 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

Patients Currently Hospitalized for COVID-19

February 28, 2022
402 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
348 (87 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
54 (13 percent) Persons Under Investigation

February 27, 2022
420 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
369 (88 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
51 (12 percent) Persons Under Investigation

February 26, 2022
428 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
374 (87 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
54 (13 percent) Persons Under Investigation

February 25, 2022
416 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
369 (89 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
47 (11 percent) Persons Under Investigation

February 24, 2022
413 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
372 (90 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
41 (10 percent) Persons Under Investigation

February 23, 2022
463 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
415 (90 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
48 (10 percent) Persons Under Investigation

February 22, 2022
523 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
446 (85 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
77 (15 percent) Persons Under Investigation

February 21, 2022
522 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
471 (90 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
51 (10 percent) Persons Under Investigation

February 20, 2022
558 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
515 (92 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
43 (8 percent) Persons Under Investigation

February 19, 2022
556 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
514 (92 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
42 (8 percent) Persons Under Investigation

The pace of immunizations documented on the CDPHE's vaccine data dashboard remains more or less static; the number of fully immunized Coloradans went up by 9,736 over the most recent six days, as compared to 10,299 during the previous eight. Even worse, the number of Pfizer, Moderna and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) doses dispensed on February 27 were all significantly lower than on February 21. The latest stats:

3,960,444 people fully immunized in Colorado (up 9,736 from February 21)
4,418,675 people immunized with at least one dose (up 10,825 from February 21)
98 people vaccinated on February 27 with Pfizer vaccine (down 388 from February 21); 119 immunizations with Pfizer vaccine reported February 27 but administered on an earlier date (down 490 from February 21)
220 people immunized on February 27 with Moderna vaccine (down 338 from February 21); 478 immunizations with Moderna vaccine reported February 27 but administered on an earlier date (down 310 from February 21)
18 people vaccinated on February 27 with Janssen (J&J) vaccine (down 30 from February 21); 9 immunizations with Janssen vaccine reported February 27 but administered on an earlier date (down 47 from February 21)

On February 28, the 402 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Colorado included 233, or 58 percent, who were unvaccinated and 169, or 42 percent, who had been immunized based on CDPHE percentage. To put these numbers in perspective, note that on October 18, the 1,101 total COVID patients broke down to 870, or 79 percent, who were unvaccinated, and 231, or 21 percent, who were vaccinated. As a result, the number of vaccinated people hospitalized wentdown almost 27 percent from mid-October 2021 to late February, but the number of unvaccinated people plummeted by more than 73 percent.

The CDPHE currently estimates that 90 percent of Coloradans have immunity against the most severe impact of COVID-19 (i.e., death) because they've either been vaccinated or achieved extra protection by contracting and surviving the disease. But members of either group can still land in the hospital — and that keeps happening, despite the improving data.