As Colorado prepares to enter an endemic phase of COVID-19, state health officials say they are ready to scale up existing safeguards should there be a future surge of infections.
“We really are in a good place. The state is prepared for a winter wave, should immunity wane, if there is another variant of concern,” Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Executive Director Jill Ryan said during a Friday briefing with reporters. She said the state is in “the best position (it’s) ever been in with this virus.”
Case counts and hospitalizations have dipped to levels similar to those seen last summer as more people are vaccinated and many people achieved immunity through an omicron infection. As of March 3, there were 283 COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state.
Health officials said they are prepared, however, to scale up measures like mass testing sites, contact tracing efforts and community vaccination clinics in the event of a future surge.
It has been two years since Colorado detected its first COVID-19 case, on March 5, 2020. Since then, the virus has killed more than 12,500 people and infected approximately 1.3 million people in the state.
But as case rates and hospitalizations rapidly decline, the state is focused on a plan to monitor and respond to any future outbreaks.
The four-pillar roadmap, introduced last week, relies on hospital readiness, surge planning, health care workforce expansion and engaging in federal government reform to stabilize the health care system.
“We’re at a point now where disease rates are low and getting lower by the day. We have high immunity from vaccination. So we are at a point where we can begin to look forward to the next step,” said COVID-19 incident commander Scott Bookman.
The state will also continue to respond to outbreaks in high-risk populations, encourage vaccinations, and stockpile testing supplies and personal protective equipment.
“We want the public to understand that behind the scenes, our teams will continue to move forward, preparing for whatever may come from COVID or any other communicable disease or disaster in the future,” he said.
By “normalizing” COVID-19 in the state’s health care system, people who test positive can immediately receive treatment through a variety of available therapeutics that will reduce their risk of hospitalization, Bookman said. He said the number of those antiviral treatments the state receives each week is smaller, but he is optimistic they will become more widespread.
The state will also continue its wastewater surveillance program to detect emergencies of COVID-19 in participating communities. There are 41 participating utilities that cover 55% of the state’s population, and health officials hope more will join.
“Wastewater surveillance is a powerful tool for monitoring not only the level of COVID-19 in a community, but also as an early warning for changes in the virus, allowing us to continue to watch for new variants of the virus without requiring asymptomatic people to seek treatment and testing,” said state lab director Emily Travanty.
Health officials still encourage people who feel sick to get tested, since it gives the state a good idea about how the virus is spreading, said Colorado’s chief medical officer Dr. Eric France.
“We know that COVID-19 is going to be with us for the foreseeable future,” he said. “I think it’s all of our duty to be looking for new COVID cases.”
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