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DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado’s COVID hospital numbers are better than they have been in the pandemic’s two-year history.

The state’s COVID load follows a national trend. The U.S. is seeing an average of 32,000 new cases per day — the lowest daily average except for monthslong spans during the summers of 2020 and 2021. Death rates have been dropping but are not yet to the lowest-ever levels.

In Colorado, the average number of new daily cases has shrunk to one of the lowest points ever, and deaths have dwindled.

Fewer Coloradans than ever are landing in hospitals with positive COVID status. On March 13, hospitals did not admit one single COVID-positive patient. This is a statewide first – hospitals have admitted at least five COVID patients every day since April 12, 2020.

On average, Colorado hospitals were admitting 18 COVID patients a day, matching low points from the summer of 2020.

As admissions go down, hospitals are clearing out their COVID patients.

As of March 15, there were 226 COVID positive patients in hospitals statewide, virtually the lowest-ever level. Only a handful of days in late summer of 2020 had fewer, and only by at most a dozen patients.

Declining case numbers have prompted Colorado officials to dial back most of the state’s COVID restrictions, including social distancing and mask mandates. Despite the lowered tone and some of the lowest numbers on record, however, health officials say they’re hesitant to announce that the pandemic is over.

Senior adviser to the White House COVID Task Force Dr. Cameron Webb said it’s still too early to say the nation has entered the so-called “endemic stage” of the COVID spread. The endemic stage would involve generally treating COVID as though it were another seasonal illness such as influenza. The country has seen downticks in COVID spread before, only to experience massive surges months later.

“I wouldn’t say we’re quite there yet,” Webb said. “We’re really happy to see that case counts are down as far as they are from the peak of the omicron surge, our hospitalizations down as far as they are, but we’ve seen improvements along the way.”