States Most Prepared With Hospital Capacity: Where Colorado Ranks

In mid-June, Colorado saw an uptick in coronavirus cases; however, because the new cases were mostly young people who attended parties in the high country and largest cities, hospitalizations have continued to trend downward in our state, health officials confirmed.

Colorado has received millions of personal protective equipment items over the past few months, but do we have enough hospital beds and doctors for the type of recent COVID-19 case surges that are occurring in states such as Texas and Florida? According to a new analysis, our state has fewer rates of hospital beds available and less physician capacity than many other states.

Colorado has an average of 1.92 hospital beds, and 2.52 certified physicians per 1,000 people, making it the 6th-least prepared state for another wave of cases, according to a report conducted by QuoteWizard analyst Adam Johnson.

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The report analyzed Kaiser Family Foundation data and ranked each state. Colorado came in at No. 45.

West Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania rank highest for hospital preparedness. Nationwide, there are an average of 2.96 physicians and 2.4 hospital beds per 1,000 people, according to the report.

Utah, Idaho and Nevada rank lowest for hospital preparedness.

Colorado health officials are urging everyone to wear masks and adhere to social distancing rules, so that hospitals aren't overwhelmed in the coming months.

More than 36,000 new infections were reported across the country Wednesday, surpassing the previous single-day record of 34,203 set on April 25.

Texas, Florida and California led the way, with all three states reporting more than 5,000 new cases apiece.

The United States has the most infections and deaths by far in the world, with almost 2.37 million confirmed cases and nearly 122,000 virus-related deaths as of Wednesday afternoon. While newly confirmed infections are declining steadily in early hot spots such as New York and New Jersey, several other states set single-day records this week including Arizona, California, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, Texas and Oklahoma.

>> Read the full QuoteWizard report here.

Patch Editor Megan VerHelst contributed to this report.