GRAND JUNCTION, Colo (KREX) — Mesa County Public Health’s Stefany Busch says, “we’ve seen a steady decline in our COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 over the past several weeks, really since our peak week, which was our average around 370 cases for a seven-day average.”

Mesa County reached that peak number towards the end of January. Nearly four weeks later, our seven-day average is 120 cases, but that’s not the only benchmark the state is working towards for its counties.

Colorado’s Governor, Jared Polis, says “one of our main goals from the very start of the pandemic in Colorado is been not to exceed our hospital capacity and we’ve succeeded in that.”

MCPH’s data dashboard shows 87% of hospital beds are being used, slightly down from 90%.

Staffed ICU beds at the height of the Omicron wave were nearly full, not anymore.

Busch also says, ‘was teetering from 90-100, so we have seen that drop a lot.”

Community Hospital sent KREX 5 this statement: “We are seeing a decline in the number of patients presenting in the emergency department with COVID-19 symptoms as well as a decline in the number of inpatients with COVID-19.”

We also reached out to St. Mary’s Medical Center. They set KREX 5 this statement: “St. Mary’s Medical Center is seeing a decline in COVID cases, and it has inpatient bed space available.”

So, what’s behind this downward trend? Busch added, “this variant has really run through a majority of populations, so that is one factor we attribute it to going down so quickly.”

Another contributing factor is vaccination, but in Mesa County, just over 50% of the population has only one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccination is key to how local health officials hope to shape the future of the virus, protect those with weakened immune systems and prevent more deaths.