Colorado's seven-day average positivity rate is above 25%, the highest since the start of the pandemic, according to health officials.
When introducing a slide showing the data during a news conference, state epidemiologist Rachel Herlihy said, "You can see our percent positivity data. This is the percentage of tests that are being reported to Public Health that come back positive. Specifically, this data looks at PCR based tests or molecular tests."
"You can see this really rapid rise in our percent positivity value. We are now up above 25%, which is the highest value we've had since the beginning of the pandemic," she added.
Colorado is estimated to be on day 18 of the Covid-19 surge, according to Herlihy, and it will take several more weeks before a clear peak in hospitalizations is seen.
"We have seen a rapid increase in the number of hospitalizations here in Colorado," she said. "But, while we see case numbers that are unlike anything we've seen previously, we see percent positivity values that are higher than we have seen previously, we are not seeing that same trend, at least at this point, in our hospitalization numbers."
There are "lots of unknowns" about what hospitalizations may look like over the next couple of weeks, according to Herlihy.
"There is a variety of reasons that are really leading to challenges in trying to predict what hospitalization numbers might look like," she said. "It's difficult to really predict precisely what could happen in the next couple of weeks."