Denver hospitals are looking to relieve patient capacity struggles, sometimes transferring patients to hospitals outside Denver as necessary, as one-in-four people in the city being tested for COVID-19 receive positive results.

Health officials cite the omicron variant for the latest outbreak and are imploring unvaccinated residents to get jabbed to stem the citywide surge and a roughly 25% positivity rate.

Hospitals are facing “the scariest part of the pandemic,” Kathy Howell, chief nursing officer at University of Colorado Hospital, said at a Tuesday news briefing with the mayor and other officials. 

Cases are “far exceeding” last year’s surge, said Bob McDonald, executive director of the city’s department of public health and environment. Capacity is “tapped out” at hospitals, McDonald said, with most hospitalized patients unvaccinated.

Read the full article at Bloomberg.