DENVER (KDVR) — Top Colorado public health leaders are sharing information and answering questions about two infectious diseases spreading in the Centennial State.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment gave a general update on monkeypox and COVID-19 transmissions in the state Thursday.
This comes as COVID-19 case rates are dropping, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention no longer lists any Colorado county under a high “COVID-19 community level,” which is calculated by COVID-19 hospital admissions and percent of staffed inpatient beds taken up by COVID-19 patients compared to cases per 100,000.
The state’s seven-day average positivity rate, which calculates positive COVID-19 PCR tests to the total of PCR tests taken, most recently peaked at 13.06% on July 5 but has fallen since to 7.61% as of this Tuesday.
And while Boulder County detected its first few cases of the monkeypox virus, the state is ramping up doses and administration of the vaccine for that virus. Thousands of doses of the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine have been administered at approximately 17 state clinics so far, with thousands more distributed to local providers.
As of Thursday morning, there have been 168 monkeypox cases in Colorado, but the numbers are surging in the late summer months. CDPHE recorded two cases in May, six in June, 66 in July, and 94 in August so far.
State Epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy joined Scott Bookman and Chief Medical Officer of Denver Health Dr. Connie Price for a briefing Thursday afternoon.
You can watch the briefing on FOX31 NOW in the player above.