COVID immunity in Colorado looks strong for now

Colorado reached another major milestone Thursday in its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

What's happening: The state deactivated its crisis standards of care that determined which patients get priority care in hospitals and emergency medical settings. The downgrade came after hospital capacity reached positive numbers for the first time in months.

• The hospital rules were most recently enacted in November and the emergency standards were added in January.

What's new: Public health models show that 90% of the state is immune to the Omicron variant because of infection or vaccination, officials said Thursday.

• Rachel Herlihy, the state's epidemiologist, said immunity will wane, but it's expected to remain high until the start of the summer.

By the numbers: The state's infection positivity rate is 6.9%.

• The latest modeling shows that 1 in every 69 people is infectious, an improvement from previous weeks.

The big picture: The U.S. is now averaging 140,000 new COVID cases per day — a 64% drop over the past two weeks. The pace of new infections is declining in every state, Axios reports.

This story first appeared in the Axios Denver newsletter, designed to help readers get smarter, faster on the most consequential news unfolding in their own backyard. Subscribe here.