DENVER (KDVR) — New modeling estimates 1 in 48 people in Colorado are infected with COVID-19, continuing a trend of worsening case transmission in the state.
The number of people currently infected “is approaching the highest levels of the pandemic,” according to the modeling report released Friday evening by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Colorado School of Public Health.
Colorado is among just 11 states with a rising number of cases, showing the second-steepest rise among them, the report states. Infections and hospitalizations have increased here for the last two-and-a-half months.
The report found the growth in COVID cases is concentrated in regions with low vaccination and adults 65 and older.
“This pattern suggests that both pockets of unvaccinated populations and waning immunity are drivers of the current increase,” the report states.
The news comes on the same day the state said it has just 815 hospital beds available throughout the entire state.
How to slow COVID cases in Colorado
The report shares the same message health officials have repeated over and over again: More people need to get vaccinated to reverse this trend.
“An increase in the rate of booster vaccinations in eligible adults and vaccinations in children ages 5 to 12 who are now eligible for vaccination will prevent hundreds of deaths and thousands of hospitalizations in Colorado,” Dr. Jon Samet, professor of epidemiology and dean of the Colorado School of Public Health, said in a press release.
The modeling report estimates 62% of Coloradans are immune by vaccination or by prior infection.