Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment (CDPHE)

About 8 million people have received the COVID-19 bivalent booster shot nationwide — less than 3% of the eligible U.S. population.

Citing declining COVID-19 hospitalizations as the omicron coronavirus variant wanes, Colorado on Thursday deactivated its crisis standards of care that enabled hospitals and emergency medical responders to prioritize the needs of the most sick and injured and allocate staff as needed to respond to the crisis.

In March 2021, three employees of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment accused high-level leaders in the Air Pollution Control Division of ignoring federal evaluation standards for some of the state’s major polluters, like oil and gas companies. The employees filed a formal whistleblower complaint with the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Colorado Newsline reporter Chase Woodruff recently looked into the inner workings of APCD.

Weekly vaccine administration has risen more than 20% since early July. We visit a mobile clinic in Greeley to find out what’s driving the increase.

Colorado’s public health department issued an order Wednesday that prevents paramedics from using ketamine to sedate people in situations like the one involving Elijah McClain. The change came just hours after Gov. Jared Polis signed House Bill 1251, which he said in a statement is meant to “restore trust in law enforcement.”

Colorado can resume using the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine now that federal regulators have lifted an 11-day pause on the shot, state public health leaders said.

On Dec. 29, Colorado became the first state in the U.S. to announce the discovery of a variant case of coronavirus. Since then, public health officials have confirmed a total of 53 variant cases of coronavirus. Dr. Rachel Herlihy, Colorado's state epidemiologist, spoke with KUNC’s Henry Zimmerman about why variants are spreading and how they differ from the primary coronavirus strain.

Colorado will use an updated COVID-19 dial which allows counties to move between public health restriction levels more swiftly, officials said Friday.

New Mexico and Colorado put limitations in place back in the spring and summer, respectively. This week, Colorado loosened its restrictions, now classifying worship and ceremonies such as weddings and funerals as essential.

The state health department recently announced it is adding a sixth level to Colorado’s COVID-19 dial framework — Level Purple: Extreme Risk — effective Friday, Nov. 20. The new level is one step higher than Level Red: Severe Risk, which was previously the highest level on the dial.