Grand County continues to see positive news related to COVID-19, with no residents currently hospitalized due to the virus.

Two residents were hospitalized within the last two weeks, but have since been discharged, marking the first time no residents have been hospitalized due to COVID in months. This reflects statewide trends, with less than 1,000 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 in Colorado.

ICU bed availability continues to improve in the state, with 13% of beds available. In the Foothils RETAC region that Grand County is a part of, 18% of ICU beds are available.

“We’re still not in a great place, but we’re in a better place than we have been the last few months,” Grand County Public Health Director Abbie Baker said in an update to county commissioners on Tuesday.

Case rates for COVID in Grand have moved down from a severe level to a caution level for the first time in months as well with 46 cases in the last seven days, equal to a rate of 293 cases per 100,000 people. About 22% of those cases were in children under 18 within the last week.

This follows a huge surge of COVID in Grand due to the omicron variant, with the county reporting 105 new COVID cases on Jan. 12 alone. Despite this amount of cases, hospitalizations haven’t followed like they did with previous surges.

Baker also discussed the push to make the COVID response more local, rather than dependent on state and federal support. Grand County uses the state to support two testing sites, and the health department is exploring what it would take to possibly pull that back.

“As long as our case rates stay low, it’s something we can respond to locally fairly easily,” Baker said.

She added that the health department wants ensure a sturdy foundation if there’s another surge in cases before any changes to testing availability.

There have been two resident deaths due to COVID-19 in 2022, totaling 16 resident deaths since the pandemic began. There have been 81 residents hospitalized due to COVID since the pandemic began.