DENVER (KDVR) – ICU bed usage has held steady since Nov. 27, a product of falling hospitalizations that healthcare representatives say is a much-needed breather.

“It’s good news for right now,” said Cara Welch, communications director for the Colorado Hospital Association. “It gives our healthcare workers a little bit of breath. We’ll take this little bit of good news.”

The good-for-now news Welch refers to concerns the state’s recent flatline of previously turbulent intensive care numbers.

Numbers are nowhere near their pre-spike averages, but have held steady at 80% ICU usage for the last two weeks.

Hospital and healthcare representatives say there is no one reason for the sudden stabilization, but do say it involves the shrinking hospitlization numbers of recent weeks.

The average daily intake of COVID-19 patients has fallen sharply since health officials implemented Level Red restrictions on Nov. 20. Overall, the 7-day hospitalization average is down 30% from its mid-November height.

This drop in intakes goes hand in hand with an overall decline in the number of hospitalized patients.

As Gov. Jared Polis acknowledged in a press conference today, hospitals are clearing up some of the glut of COVID-19 patients that peaked in late November, dropping from 2,000 at its height to 1,750 as of Dec. 8.

Mike Burnett, Response Coordination Officer at Northeast Colorado Health Department, said hospitals are making use of the time to prepare surge capacity for a post-Thanksgiving spike in cases most health officials say will begin this week.

“All the hospitals have been working diligently on increasing surge capacity. That’s being done in all kinds of different facilities in all kinds of directions,” Burnett said. “Out here, some of ours have ordered additional hospital beds. The other encouraging thing is thing is that there are 27 facilities listing staffing shortages, and in the last month we’ve been hovering at 35, 36 a day. There are fewer hospitals now reporting bed shortages.”

Indeed, the lower hospital numbers seem to be freeing up space.

State data shows expected shortages falling in three key categories – ICU beds, staff and personal protective equipment. A smaller percentage of hospitals are expecting shortages for any of these metrics than since early November.

Both Burnett and Welch say this gives healthcare systems a chance to catch up, but that the break will end.

“Those were all pre-Thanksgiving numbers,” Welch said. “Reported numbers from Thanksgiving are going up. We know to expect those around holidays.”