DENVER (KDVR) — Denver has knocked down two statistics that would bump it out of Level Red restrictions but has a ways to go on the other.
Like the rest of the state, Denver’s hospital numbers have improved in recent weeks from mid-November highs. This marks a turning point in one of the state’s three main criteria for restriction levels – cumulative incidence rates, positivity rates and hospitalizations.
Denver’s hospitalizations have declined for nine days in a row. This puts the city over the threshold. To return to Level Orange, a county must show decreasing of stable hospitalizations for eight to 11 days straight.
For a county to move down to Level Orange, it must have a two-week cumulative incidence rate between 175 and 350 and a two-week average positivity rate between 10% and 15%.
One of these critical numbers is going down and the other is below the threshold.
The two-week average cumulative incident rate hovers at 8.7%-8.6%. This is below the Level Red and Level Orange thresholds.
Cases per day, however, is still far above necessary to leave Level Red.
In the last week, the average new daily cases per 100,000 fell by 150 a day, but still sits at 800. This is more than twice the threshold of 175-350 per day that would allow Denver to loosen its restrictions.