Supreme Dear Leader and People’s Commissar of Colorado, Jared Polis, has decreed the state is in charge by his own executive order, and hospital care can now be accordingly rationed: 

Gov. Jared Polis signed two executive orders on Sunday, giving the state control of hospital admissions and transfers and laying the groundwork to authorize crisis standards of care as Colorado hospitals continue to get crushed by a wave of COVID-19 hospitalizations.

 

The order pertaining to hospital transfers authorizes the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to order hospitals to transfer or cease the admission of patients.

Colorado Public Radio reports the governor’s orders also open the door for hospitals to activate crisis standards of care — the guidelines for allocating scarce resources for patients.

In other words, some patients would get intensive care treatment while others are denied that medical treatment, based on the guidelines. 

Public radio further reports:

There are nearly 1,200 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Colorado, the most since December, as the highly transmissible delta variant continues to run roughshod through the state’s unvaccinated population. Nearly 80 percent of those hospitalized with coronavirus are unvaccinated, and almost 40 percent of hospitals expect to be short staffed during the next week.

There is no explanation why 40% of hospitals will be short staffed this week. We are not aware of any medical-only holidays, conferences, or vacation specials. 

But in a completely separate story over at public radio, we learn that today is deadline day for Colorado health care workers to comply with the state mandate to get vaccinated. 

The report says 92% of hospital workers complied, so we’re not sure what’s going on with the other workers.

As to why we’re going to DEFCON 2 with 1,200 COVID hospitalizations, it’s not clear at all.

The state is more interested in telling us what percentage of patients have been vaccinated, and less clear on beds in use.

This just doesn’t look catastrophic.

Meanwhile, These numbers from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department show Colorado has 11,743 inpatient beds. 

8,481 are in use, while 1,320 are for COVID.

There are 1,100 ICU beds, with 396 COVID cases.

But according to the Denver Post’s coverage of Polis’s mandate, here’s the only thing Coloradans need concern themselves with: