Colorado’s flu and COVID hospitalizations still rising, while RSV continues to put “extreme stress” on medical system
Only two pediatric ICU beds in Colorado available as of last Monday
Denver Post
Eric Lutzens/The Denver Post
The virus that’s packed children’s hospitals in Colorado may finally be reaching its peak, but flu and COVID-19 hospitalizations are continuing to rise heading into the holiday weekend.
Dr. Kevin Carney, associate chief medical officer at Children’s Hospital Colorado, said he thinks that the number of hospitalizations from respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, has stopped rising, but it hasn’t started to fall yet.
All of the hospital’s units are running at capacity, he said. RSV typically causes cold symptoms, but can be dangerous to young children and older adults.
“We are still dealing with higher numbers of patients than we’ve ever had to manage before,” he said. “I don’t see a scenario in the next month or two where we don’t have very busy emergency departments and inpatient units.”
Statewide, only two beds were available in pediatric intensive care units as of Monday, Nov. 21, said Scott Bookman, director of the division of disease control and public health response at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The number has fluctuated between zero and five over the last two weeks.
Read more at DenverPost.com.
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