People will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend large, indoor events in the Denver area starting Friday. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment announced a new public health order Sunday night putting the mandate in place. The order applies to Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver and Jefferson counties. A large, […]
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Posted inCOVID, Health, News, Politics and Government
Colorado’s governor always said hospital capacity would dictate a new mask mandate. So why hasn’t he issued one?
In early August, as coronavirus infections and hospitalizations first began rising in Colorado following a summer lull, Gov. Jared Polis stood before reporters to answer questions about the worrying trend. Asked when he might consider reissuing a statewide mask mandate or other such aggressive virus-fighting actions, he was clear. “We will not overwhelm our hospitals,” […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
Colorado loosening requirements for hospital staff as COVID continues to surge
Colorado health officials announced Tuesday that they will give hospitals a break from normal staffing requirements and expectations, part of an effort to help hospitals better handle the personnel shortages they face as coronavirus infections continue to surge across the state. By authorizing so-called “crisis standards of care” related to staffing, the Colorado Department of […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
What is driving Colorado’s COVID surge? Not even the experts are sure.
The number of people hospitalized with coronavirus infections in Colorado fell slightly Thursday, offering a bit more breathing room to the state’s overloaded hospitals. But, as hospitals begin implementing more aggressive transfer protocols and health care workers continue to sound an alarm about the direction of the pandemic in Colorado, no one is celebrating. “For […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
Colorado hospitals are so full they just did something they haven’t done all pandemic
The Colorado Hospital Association announced Wednesday that it is activating Tier 3 of the state’s Combined Hospital Transfer Center. How bad is that? Hospitals didn’t have to activate Tier 3, the highest level, during even the busiest months of last winter’s COVID surge. But what the hospital association calls “monumental strain” on the health care […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
A Colorado lawsuit is testing the boundaries of religious exemptions to COVID vaccines
This is a true story about heroes and villains in the age of coronavirus and how no one can agree on who is which. The doctor, one of the protagonists of this story, is a pediatric intensive care specialist in Colorado Springs working with some of the sickest children in the state. She’s unvaccinated against […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
Some hospitals resorted to crisis triage during the pandemic. A Colorado doctor says more should have.
The early days of the coronavirus pandemic brought a terrifying question into the minds of health leaders across the country: What happens if the virus overwhelms the nation’s health care system? What happens if there’s not enough resources to treat everyone? The question forced states to grapple with the concept of “crisis standards of care” […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, Health, News
Charges against 2 Colorado women accused of killing their newborns point to need for more awareness of Safe Haven law
The recent arrest of a young Highlands Ranch woman whose dead newborn baby was found hidden in her home — the second newborn murder case in Colorado in the past four months — underscores the reasons behind Colorado’s rarely used “Safe Haven” law. The law, passed in 2000 after similar cases involving young mothers, allows […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
Colorado officials may weaken coronavirus vaccine mandate for health care workers
Colorado health officials have proposed weakening the state’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for health care workers, meaning some employees at hospitals and nursing homes might be able to remain on the job while unvaccinated even if they don’t have a valid exemption. The proposal comes after the deadline has already passed for workers to receive their […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
Why Colorado’s hospitals have bent — but not broken — during the latest COVID surge
Nearly 19 months in, these are some of the toughest days for Colorado hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic. Even as the latest surge in coronavirus hospitalizations appears to have plateaued — what state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy this week called an “unstable equilibrium” — hospitals across Colorado have still been scrambling to add critical-care beds […]