How Colorado Is Weathering Pandemic: See New Weekly Virus Data

A new batch of data from the White House is giving a fresh snapshot into how Colorado is handling the pandemic, and how our state compares to others.

Under the previous administration, the White House COVID-19 Team compiled weekly reports that tracked pandemic growth in each state, but the reports were only issued to governors, not the public.

White House COVID-19 Data Director Cyrus Shahpar confirmed over twitter Wednesday that, going forward, the data would be shared publicly.

The report's first set of data shows how Colorado stacks up against the rest of the nation. As of Jan. 24, our state's positivity rate, which tracks the percentage of all tests performed that are positive, is 5.2 percent — less than half of the rate in the U.S. at large, which is 10.6 percent.

Colorado's testing rate per 100,000 people is 3,785, compared to the U.S. rate of 3,092.

The rate of COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people in Colorado is 2.1 — just under a third of the death rate in the rest of the country.

Colorado's number of hospitals with both supply staff shortages are less than half of the overall U.S. shortages.

In other words, Colorado is doing much better than most other states during the pandemic.

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The White House report also included easy-to-understand maps for coronavirus rates, hospital admissions and death rates in Colorado:

The reason the Trump administration kept these reports hidden was to encourage states to lead their own response to the pandemic, according to a report by the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity.

Dr. Deborah Birx, a leader of the White House task force under former President Donald Trump, said on a private call last summer that the reports were “critical to really ensure we’re all looking at the same data and all looking at the same mitigation efforts,” according to a separate report by the Center for Public Integrity.

The release of the weekly state reports is the latest move by the Biden administration to bring transparency back to the White House.

Within hours of Joe Biden’s inauguration, press secretary Jen Psaki held her first press briefing at the White House. During it, Psaki — who served as the chief spokeswoman at the State Department under President Barack Obama — told reporters she had a “deep respect for the role of a free and independent press in our democracy.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, also said Americans should expect a “transparent, open and honest” response to the coronavirus under Biden.