Coronavirus-related deaths in Colorado reached at least 329 on Tuesday as state health officials said they were seeing signs that the disease may be starting to plateau.
The total number of confirmed cases in the state jumped to 7,941, an increase of about 250 over Monday. Cumulative hospitalizations have reached at least 1,556.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment doesn’t release information on people who have been discharged, but UCHealth reported Tuesday that about 370 of its coronavirus patients have been released from its hospitals in the state.
The new deaths reported Tuesday include the first in Kit Carson County. Denver and Weld counties have the most fatalities, with 56 and 55 respectively.
About one-third of all deaths have been among residents of Colorado nursing and senior living facilities. Gov. Jared Polis is exploring actions the state may be able to take to better protect that cohort.
Scott Bookman, Colorado’s incident commander for the coronavirus crisis, said the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is working to collect more data from hospitals on how many coronavirus patients are being discharged.
“From our conversations with the hospitals, volumes do seem to be relatively flat,” he said. “That’s not to say that we aren’t seeing a high number of COVID patients. We’re just not seeing exponential growth. That’s consistent with kind of the flattening that we’ve been seeing.”