Colorado Records Highest Hospitalization Levels Since Beginning Of The COVID Pandemic

DENVER (CBS4) - Colorado reached a grim milestone on Thursday. The state has now recorded its highest level of patients hospitalized by COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic in March. Gov. Jared Polis announced that 894 people are currently in Colorado hospital beds. That exceeds numbers seen in March when 888 people were hospitalized at the peak of the first wave of COVID.

Polis and Dr. Rachel Herlihy, the state's Chief Epidemiologist, expressed their concern about the current level of COVID-19 spread in Colorado.

"I want to emphasize that we believe that there is more COVID-19 circulating in Colorado right now than there has been since the beginning of the pandemic," Dr. Herlihy said in a news conference on Thursday.

The state is on pace to reach maximum ICU capacity by late December.

Polis is asking Coloradans to only socialize with members of their own household for the month of November. He stressed that if Coloradans made the lifestyle change for just a few weeks, life can begin to get back to normal.

"I know this sounds daunting, but we can if we make these changes during the month of November, we can be on a better trajectory for the holidays," Polis said.