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Black and Latino Coloradans are being disproportionately hit by monkeypox as cases rise

The number of monkeypox infections continues to rise in Colorado, but new state data shows evidence that Black and Latino communities have been hit harder. As of Thursday, the state has confirmed 168 cases in Colorado, stretching back to May. A majority of those cases — 94 — have been confirmed in August, though it […]

Posted inCOVID, News

COVID cases are down in Colorado, but the new omicron variant could change that

While the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 has seen a slight decline, public health officials fear the new omicron variant could change that. No confirmed cases of the potentially more transmissible variant have been detected in Colorado.  The omicron variant was first identified overseas last week and there’s still a lot experts don’t […]

Posted inCOVID, Health, News, Politics and Government

The behind-the-scenes story of being Gov. Jared Polis during Colorado’s coronavirus crisis

A little more than a month into Colorado’s battle with coronavirus, Gov. Jared Polis and his team reached the helpless realization that there was no end in sight.  At that point, more than 8,000 people had tested positive for the disease and over 350 had died, including scores living in senior-care centers. The stay-at-home order […]

Posted inColoradans, COVID, Health, News

Colorado nursing homes with the most coronavirus deaths were cited for poor infection control

Last February, a month before coronavirus crawled through a Greeley nursing home, inspectors alerted the center’s managers of infection-control problems.  Back then, before the pandemic had even arrived in Colorado, state regulators were worried about the way two nurses at Centennial Health Center cleaned a resident’s wound. The nursing home was cited for federal protocol […]

Posted inCOVID, Health, News, Politics and Government

To ensure noncitizens are included in vaccine drive, Colorado won’t check IDs

Colorado’s public health department sent notices Sunday to hundreds of providers directing them not to require government IDs or other documentation for people getting inoculated against the coronavirus. The directive is aimed at ensuring noncitizens and others who might not have an ID are included in the vaccination drive. Ignoring it could cause medical facilities […]

Posted inCOVID, Health, News

“Absolutely historic”: First doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine arrive in Colorado, are administered

Colorado received its first shipment of the coronavirus vaccine Monday morning, launching a months-long inoculation process that health officials hope will start to have meaningful effects on limiting transmission of the disease in the state by late spring. A FedEx van delivered 975 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine to the Colorado Department of Public Health and […]

Posted inCOVID, Health, News, Politics and Government

Months ago, Colorado trained to prepare for a pandemic. But not one like the coronavirus.

In August, months before the first case of the new coronavirus was documented, some of Colorado’s top health officials gathered in a room at the state Department of Public Health and Environment to train for a pandemic. The hypothetical scenario: A highly infectious and lethal new virus had jumped from animals to humans in China […]

Posted inCOVID, Health, News, Politics and Government

Colorado’s governor says he is using data to guide the state’s response to the coronavirus. But the numbers are incomplete.

As Gov. Jared Polis stood before the television cameras this week to announce the statewide stay-at-home order in response to the coronavirus pandemic, he fielded a question about when mandated isolation would end. “We will make that call based on the real data that we receive,” he said. For weeks, Polis has tackled this pandemic […]