How many people have recovered from the coronavirus? Colorado says it can’t yet answer that question. – The Denver Post

As positive cases and deaths connected to the novel coronavirus continue to mount, one statistic has remained unaccounted for in Colorado’s daily COVID-19 updates: the number of recovered patients.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment tracks a multitude of data related to the global pandemic on its website, including hospitalizations, the number of people tested, deaths, outbreaks at nursing homes and counties with confirmed cases.

The state has graphs, maps, tables and charts with breakdowns on gender, geography, age and sex.

So where’s the data on how many people have recovered from COVID-19?

State health officials say we’re still too early in the process, with many patients who are hospitalized requiring multiple weeks of care. In addition, full recovery numbers are difficult to compute because the vast majority of people who get the novel coronavirus recover in their homes without medical attention

“We’re working with local public health agencies and partners to identify the best way to identify recoveries,” Scott Bookman, the state’s incident commander for COVID-19, said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters. “It’s a complex number based on hospitalizations.”

As patients begin to be released from hospitals in greater numbers, the state will figure out a method to release those statistics, Bookman told reporters last week.

Still, those numbers likely will miss thousands of people who never interacted with the health care system in the first place as 80% of cases remain mild in nature.

At least one Colorado county, however, has figured out a method.

Boulder County on Tuesday said in a news release that 100 of its residents have tested positive for COVID-19, and 42 have now recovered.

After county health officials conduct an investigation into anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19, someone follows up to do a symptom check, Chana Goussetis, Boulder County’s health department spokeswoman, said in an email. When that individual no longer has symptoms, health officials consider them to be recovered.

“We may not be able to continue this practice if/when positive test results increase significantly, but that is currently our process,” Goussetis wrote.

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