90% of state’s ICU beds in use

Polis considers larger role for National Guard

Gov. Jared Polis sounded the alarm Thursday about the persistent increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations in Colorado, saying the state will consider using the National Guard to help ease “our hospital capacity crisis.”

The number of patients with the virus in Colorado hospitals generally has increased since late July, even as those numbers have dropped significantly on a national level over the last month.

As of Thursday, there were fewer acute-care beds available statewide than during the deadly late-2020 wave when COVID-19 hospitalizations peaked on Dec. 1.

More than 90% of the state’s intensive-care beds also were in use, meaning just 123 ICU beds were open Thursday, according to data from the Department of Public Health and Environment.

The governor said the rise in patients “is a very stark reminder for anybody who thought the pandemic was over.”

“Of course, we’re also looking at what (the National Guard) can do to help end the pandemic — helping with the additional booster and kids (vaccination) drive, but also helping with our hospital capacity crisis that we have, especially in El Paso County,” Polis said during a news briefing.

So far, Colorado has dispatched 12 guard members to assisted-living facilities and group homes via the state’s emergency health care staffing center, which was reactivated last month to help hospitals with the rise in patients, a spokesperson with the Department of Public Health and Environment said Thursday.

In this capacity, they are able to work as “qualified medication administration personnel,” which allows them to administer medicine in certain settings, the unidentified health department spokesperson said in an email.

However, National Guard troops are not licensed health care employees.

The Colorado National Guard also can be sent to help hospitals, as has occurred in other states such as California, where National Guard medical teams have been sent to bolster staffing at rural hospitals.

No Colorado guard members were assigned to hospitals as of Thursday, according to the health department.

It’s not the first time Colorado officials have called on the National Guard to help respond to the pandemic. Over the past year, guard members assisted with staffing at nursing homes and with the state’s mass campaign to get residents vaccinated against the coronavirus.