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Another benchmark has been reached in the ongoing fight against COVID-19. According to the latest data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the number of patients admitted to a hospital in the state for the virus on Sunday, March 13, landed at zero.
That’s not a typo. For the first time since the earliest days of the pandemic, just over two years ago, Colorado saw no new COVID-related hospital admissions for an entire day.
Here are the current COVID numbers in major categories, as updated by the CDPHE after 4 p.m. March 14, along with information from our previous COVID data roundup, which drew from March 7 statistics.
1,326,391 cases (up 5,747 from March 7)
28,093 variants of concern (up 2 from March 7)
64 counties (unchanged from March 7)
60,972 hospitalizations (up 753 from March 7)
11,860 deaths among cases (up 34 from March 7)
12,707 deaths due to COVID-19 (up 66 from March 7)
8,446 outbreaks (up 42 from March 7)
Four takeaways:
• The total of 5,747 new COVID cases in Colorado for the week ending March 14 was down by more than 1,000 from the week before. While the official tally doesn’t include a large number of infections that go unreported, as the CDPHE admits, the new stat still reflects improvement.
• New variants of concern aren’t popping up regularly, increasing by just two week over week.
• Newly confirmed deaths attributed to COVID-19 fell from 133 on March 7 to 66 a week later.
• New outbreaks tumbled from 64 to 42 over the most recent week.
Daily reports of COVID cases have continued to slide, with four of the past ten days in just double digits, including just ten new cases on March 12. The details:
March 13 — 15 Cases
March 12 — 10 Cases
March 11 — 96 Cases
March 10 — 211 Cases
March 9 — 164 Cases
March 8 — 268 Cases
March 7 — 183 Cases
March 6 — 89 Cases
March 5 — 148 Cases
March 4 — 358 Cases
The Omicron 2 strain of the virus appears to be making minor inroads, accounting for 3.07 percent of samples sequenced by the CDPHE during the week of February 20, the most recent for which figures are available; no Omicron 2 samples were detected a week earlier. So far, however, both Omicron strains appear to be considerably milder than the Delta variant that preceded them. Meanwhile, the state’s positivity rates of 3.54 percent on March 14 and 2.93 percent average over the past week are well below the 5 percent officials consider to be the threshold for concern. And ICU bed demands have lessened considerably, with 247 available statewide as of yesterday.
Even better is the decline in new hospital admissions. The lack of any admissions at all on March 13 represented the brightest spot, but admissions on March 12 and March 14 were both under twenty. Overall hospitalization totals for COVID patients are dipping, too, with fewer than 300 receiving treatment each day since March 8. The details:
New Hospital Admissions by Admission Date
March 14, 2022
14 patients admitted to the hospital
19 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital
March 13, 2022
0 patients admitted to the hospital
18 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital
March 12, 2022
19 patients admitted to the hospital
23 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital
March 11, 2022
27 patients admitted to the hospital
22 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital
March 10, 2022
25 patients admitted to the hospital
26 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital
March 9, 2022
39 patients admitted to the hospital
33 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital
March 8, 2022
6 patients admitted to the hospital
34 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital
March 7, 2022
13 patients admitted to the hospital
38 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital
March 6, 2022
32 patients admitted to the hospital
37 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital
March 5, 2022
12 patients admitted to the hospital
41 seven-day average patients admitted to the hospital
Patients Currently Hospitalized for COVID-19
March 14, 2022
238 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
179 (75 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
59 (25 percent) Persons Under Investigation
March 13, 2022
237 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
191 (81 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
46 (19 percent) Persons Under Investigation
March 12, 2022
256 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
206 (80 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
50 (20 percent) Persons Under Investigation
March 11, 2022
254 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
211 (83 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
43 (17 percent) Persons Under Investigation
March 10, 2022
288 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
234 (81 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
54 (19 percent) Persons Under Investigation
March 9, 2022
289 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
240 (83 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
49 (17 percent) Persons Under Investigation
March 8, 2022
290 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
246 (85 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
44 (15 percent) Persons Under Investigation
March 7, 2022
305 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
265 (87 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
40 (13 percent) Persons Under Investigation
March 6, 2022
315 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
273 (87 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
42 (13 percent) Persons Under Investigation
March 5, 2022
313 Total COVID Patients (Confirmed & Suspected/PUI)
268 (86 percent) Confirmed COVID-19
45 (14 percent) Persons Under Investigation
But immunizations documented on the CDPHE’s vaccine data dashboard remain on a downward trend, too. The 6,689 people who gained full immunization status for the seven days ending March 6 was down from 7,102 the prior week, and the daily stats for those receiving doses of Pfizer, Moderna and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) have never been lower:
3,974,235 people fully immunized in Colorado (up 6,689 from March 6)
4,431,714 people immunized with at least one dose (up 10,825 from March 6)
38 people vaccinated on March 13 with Pfizer vaccine (up 4 from March 6); 57 immunizations with Pfizer vaccine reported March 13 but administered on an earlier date (up 2 from March 6)
105 people immunized on March 13 with Moderna vaccine (unchanged from March 6); 242 immunizations with Moderna vaccine reported March 13 but administered on an earlier date (down 131 from March 6)
8 people vaccinated on March 13 with Janssen (J&J) vaccine (up 1 from March 6); 6 immunizations with Janssen vaccine reported March 13 but administered on an earlier date (down 4 from March 6)
Zero hospitalizations generate little incentive for anti-vaxers to roll up their sleeves. But a jab is still a small price to pay to keep numbers this good.