At least 97 people in Colorado have died from complications from the novel coronavirus, as hospitalizations rose to 710, state health officials announced Thursday.
The announcement of 3,728 confirmed cases in the state — and 17 new deaths — comes as top health officials scramble to get enough beds, ventilators and other medical supplies before a feared surge in COVID-19 cases overwhelms the health care capacity.
A day after addressing Colorado’s desperate need for more medical supplies, Gov. Jared Polis released a letter he sent to Vice President Mike Pence over the weekend requesting additional resources be sent to the state.
“We are facing a crisis-level shortage of these essential supplies to protect our health care workers and first responders,” Polis wrote in the letter dated March 28, shared Thursday in a news release.
Health officials on Thursday also confirmed 21 outbreaks at residential and non-hospital health care facilities — the places considered most at risk to the new coronavirus.
Nearly 20,000 people have now been tested, even as Polis has repeatedly has expressed his frustration that the state has not reached mass testing capabilities. The finite resources have forced officials to prioritize testing for health care providers, first responders and serious cases requiring hospitalization.
That lack of testing has contributed to lower numbers across the board since the crisis began. The number of positive cases is likely four to 10 times higher than the data compiled by the state, Scott Bookman, the state’s incident commander for COVID-19, said on a conference call with reporters Thursday.
That would now put Colorado’s actual case totals in the 15,000 to 37,000 range.
