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Friday, Jan. 16, 2026

Did Colorado just have its worst week for flu hospitalizations?

Cassis Tingley, The Colorado Sun
yes

Though January has delivered some relief for Coloradans, the last week of December saw the highest number of influenza hospitalizations in the state’s 20-year history of collecting hospitalization data. 

During the week ending Dec. 27, the state reported 846 people were hospitalized from the flu. That tops the previous high of 582 for the week ending Dec. 26, 2014. 

Emergency room visits for the flu in Colorado are “very high” and increasing, the Centers for Disease Control said in a Jan. 9 advisory. Meanwhile, emergency visits for COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, were considered low. 

The state has reported 3,687 total hospitalizations and two deaths from flu since October.

Vaccination rates for flu in Colorado are slightly behind what they were this time last year. As of Jan. 14, 28.7% of Coloradans have received this year’s flu vaccine, compared with 29.5% in 2025.

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The Colorado Sun is a journalist-founded, award-winning and nonprofit news outlet based in Denver that strives to cover all of Colorado so that our state — our community — can better understand itself. In this way, we believe we can contribute to a more vibrant, informed and whole Colorado. We are committed to fact-based, in-depth and nonpartisan journalism. We cover everything from politics and culture to the outdoor industry and education. Our goal is to produce the best possible journalism. We do that with the help of you, our readers, and community backers. We launched on Sept. 10, 2018.

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