Covid-19 Infection Rates in Colorado Are Highest Among Children

(Bloomberg) -- Children account for the fastest rate of new Covid-19 infections in Colorado, a health official said Tuesday. Other western states reported hospitals under stress and called up the National Guard.

Colorado’s trend started in July before schools opened, Rachel Herlihy, state epidemiologist, told an online news briefing. The state is encouraging schools to require face masks though there is no mandate.

Colorado has “significant” hospital capacity for children and adults, said Scott Bookman, the state’s Covid-19 incident commander, who called vaccines “the ticket out of this pandemic.”

Elsewhere in the western U.S., it’s a different story. Utah Governor Spencer Cox said Tuesday the state’s hospitals are at a “breaking point,” the Deseret News reported. Staffing shortages have reduced bed capacity, Cox said.

In Idaho, Governor Brad Little said Tuesday he will deploy up to 150 National Guard members for short-staffed facilities, the Idaho Statesman reported.  “We’ve reached a point in the pandemic we have not been before,” Little said.

The largest hospital in Montana is also bringing in the National Guard for the second time in two years to ease staffing shortages, the Billings Gazette reported.

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