DENVER (KDVR) — Vaccines are coming as COVID-19 goes back to its norm from summer 2020.
The incoming President Joe Biden administration’s plans to roll more vaccines out has not yet begun in earnest, but at least in Colorado vaccination plans are coming at a moment when the COVID-19 is on a sustained downward trend.
Gov. Jared Polis today reiterated plans to vaccinate 70% of Coloradans 70 years and older within the next few months, with an emphasis on underserved rural communities and communities of color.
Fortunately, Colorado’s COVID-19 metrics – including vaccinations – are outpacing much of the rest of country.
Colorado’s new daily case rate is now 43% lower than the national average, and has trended downward while the rest of the country has trended up. This looks even better considering that the state’s fall wave made its case rates skyrocket past the already climbing national trend.
Colorado did see a post-holiday blip in cases. However, the shortness of the bump and the absence of a large hospitalization increase makes experts think it was simply a testing glut after normal business hours returned.
The same patterns are present in Colorado’s death rates.
Colorado’s COVID-19 death rate is 62% lower than the national average, even after having spiked to twice the daily U.S. death rate in November. Colorado has one of the nation’s lower death rates as of Jan. 22.
The strain on the hospital system is easing in Colorado as deaths and cases go down.
The state’s ICU bed usage rates have returned to what they were in September 2020, before the October upward roll in cases turned into an outright surge.
This hospital availability rides on the 60% plummet in the statewide amount of hospitalized COVID-19 patients from Nov. 20 till now. The average number of newly admitted patients has fallen nearly 70% from its November high.
Colorado’s vaccination program is, on a statewide level, outperforming other states’.
Colorado is performing at least middling in all national metrics that concern vaccination programs.
It ranks 11th nationwide for the percentage of its vaccines administered to residents and number administered per 100,000, 14th place nationally for the number of residents who have received their first shot, and 15th place for the number of residents who have received their second shot.