Colorado COVID Deaths Take a Pre-Christmas Jump

Many of the latest COVID-19 statistics reported by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment are already starting to moderate following a post-Thanksgiving bump. But there's one tragic exception: The number of newly reported deaths from the disease rose by nearly 100 over the previous week's count.

The 302 COVID fatalities in the seven-day period ending December 13 compares to 210 for the previous week. The latest total averages out to more than 43 viral deaths per day.

Here are the numbers in major categories as updated by the CDPHE after 4 p.m. December 13. They're juxtaposed with information from our previous COVID data roundup, which drew from December 6 figures.

858,382 cases (up 14,531 from December 6)
24,509 variants of concern (up 224 from December 6)
64 counties (unchanged from December 6)
48,935 hospitalized (up 986 from December 6)
9,670 deaths among cases (up 290 from December 6)
9,954 deaths due to COVID-19 (up 302 from December 6)
7,033 outbreaks (up 72 from December 6)

Four takeaways:

• New cases of COVID-19 fell from 17,036 for the week ending December 6 to 14,531 in the December 13 report.

• Also down are new hospitalizations, which slipped from 1,197 on December 6 to 986 on December 13.

• Fresh COVID outbreaks are down, too: The 72 sites identified through December 13 are five fewer than the 77 on December 6.

• Deaths prove to be the outlier. Deaths among COVID cases climbed, too, from 229 on December 6 to 290 on December 13.

Daily case counts for the most recent ten-day period for which stats are available show notable improvement. The best day was December 12, when newly reported cases fell below 1,000 for the first time in weeks:

December 12 — 619 Cases
December 11 — 1,250 Cases
December 10 — 1,562 Cases
December 9 — 1,639 Cases
December 8 — 2,301 Cases
December 7 — 2,257 Cases
December 6 — 2,818 Cases
December 5 — 1,050 Cases
December 4 — 1,525 Cases
December 3 — 2,352 Cases

Also improving is the state's positivity rate, which registered 6.34 percent on December 13 — still over the 5 percent threshold that health officials consider to be a warning sign that not enough testing is being done, but a notch under the 7.56 percent reading from a week earlier. And while Omicron cases are now being tracked, there are still only two officially registered; a newly reported case in Jefferson County has not yet been added to previous ones in Arapahoe and Boulder counties. During the week of November 28, every case sequenced by the CDPHE was traced to the Delta variant.

Meanwhile, the availability of ICU beds in the state remains tight. Only 99 were open throughout Colorado on December 13. But the situation was worse on December 9, when that total slid to 68, and overall, the average numbers of new hospital admissions and patients currently hospitalized are continuing on a slow but steady downward trajectory. The details:

New Hospital Admissions by Admission Date

December 13, 2021
102 patients admitted to the hospital
130 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

December 12, 2021
30 patients admitted to the hospital
134 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

December 11, 2021
81 patients admitted to the hospital
140 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

December 10, 2021
162 patients admitted to the hospital
143 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

December 9, 2021
141 patients admitted to the hospital
145 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

December 8, 2021
153 patients admitted to the hospital
153 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

December 7, 2021
239 patients admitted to the hospital
159 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

December 6, 2021
135 patients admitted to the hospital
159 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

December 5, 2021
70 patients admitted to the hospital
165 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

December 4, 2021
103 patients admitted to the hospital
164 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital

Patients Currently Hospitalized for COVID-19

December 13, 2021
1,334 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,294 (97 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
40 (3 percent) Persons Under Investigation

December 12, 2021
1,376 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,312 (95 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
64 (5 percent) Persons Under Investigation

December 11, 2021
1,382 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,317 (95 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
65 (5 percent) Persons Under Investigation

December 10, 2021
1,391 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,329 (96 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
62 (4 percent) Persons Under Investigation

December 9, 2021
1,408 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,356 (96 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
52 (4 percent) Persons Under Investigation

December 8, 2021
1,447 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,383 (96 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
64 (4 percent) Persons Under Investigation

December 7, 2021
1,481 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,419 (96 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
62 (4 percent) Persons Under Investigation

December 6, 2021
1,440 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,379 (96 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
61 (4 percent) Persons Under Investigation

December 5, 2021
1,452 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,381 (95 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
71 (5 percent) Persons Under Investigation

December 4, 2021
1,432 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
1,362 (95 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
70 (5 percent) Persons Under Investigation

Less cheerful are the numbers on the CDPHE's vaccine data dashboard. The weekly increase in fully immunized Coloradans fell from 54,738 on December 5 to 43,005 on December 12, and individuals newly inoculated with a single dose slumped slightly, too.

3,739,632 people fully immunized in Colorado (up 43,005 from December 5)
4,142,280 people immunized with at least one dose (up 37,195 from December 5)
2,603 people vaccinated on December 12 with Pfizer vaccine (down 9 from December 5); 3,624 immunizations with Pfizer vaccine reported December 12 but administered on an earlier date (down 17,650 from December 5)
1,311 people immunized on December 12 with Moderna vaccine (down 568 from December 5); 3,182 immunizations with Moderna vaccine reported December 12 but administered on an earlier date (down 13,249 from December 5)
77 people vaccinated on December 12 with Janssen (J&J) vaccine (up 10 from December 5); 214 immunizations with Janssen vaccine reported December 12 but administered on an earlier date (up 420 from December 5)

Since the CDPHE considers deaths to be a lagging statistic, the number of fatalities should drop if current trends continue. But the holidays will still be colored by loss for all too many Coloradans.