One of the questions around the daily COVID-19 data supplied by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has been just how many people who have been hospitalized have recovered.

Wednesday, the Colorado Hospital Association provided an answer.

According to a statement from the association, as of Tuesday, 1,215 Coloradans have been hospitalized with COVID-19 or with COVID-19 symptoms.

“That number had grown steadily since mid-March, when hospitals began reporting this data to the state, but it has leveled off in the past week,’ the CHA statement said. In addition, this week, Colorado hospitals started collecting collecting and reporting the number of patients discharged.

“This is critical data that will continue to inform the decisions we are making at the state level for how to best respond to COVID-19,” Gov. Jared Polis said in the CHA statement. “I applaud the hospitals for finally disclosing this information. This is very useful data that informs our planning around how many hospital beds are needed and increases our knowledge of the trajectory of the virus in Colorado. The commitment of hospitals to this additional transparency is important now more than ever.

“We also thank the front-line health care workers, for all their work to protect and save Coloradans throughout this global pandemic. We remain committed to ensuring Coloradans have as much information as possible as we get through this difficult time together.”

As has previously been reported, many COVID-19 patients require a supportive hospital stay, which includes oxygen to breathe, fluids, monitoring and medication administration. Of those patients, a smaller group require critical care during their stay. These patients are critically ill, including multi-system organ failure, and they often require the support of a ventilator to breathe.

Thus far, Colorado hospitals have had sufficient ventilators and critical care beds to care for COVID-19 patients. However, hospitals must continue to carefully manage their personal protective equipment and some medications, as the supply chain for those materials has been disrupted and is currently unreliable.

The CHA’s data had a total of 1,419, with 1,215 hospitalized on Tuesday and 204 discharged. Those  numbers don’t match up with data provided by the department of public health, which on Tuesday said 1,556 had been hospitalized with COVID-19. 

Julie Lonborg, the hospital association’s vice president for communications, explained that the CDPHE’s hospitalization number “is cumulative and ours is point in time. So, as of yesterday there were 1,215 people in a Colorado hospital with either a COVID-positive test or symptoms.”

The CDPHE number is a cumulative number of those hospitalized, which is both positive and epidemiologist-linked cases, Lonborg said.