How Colorado Compares With U.S.: Coronavirus Update Feb. 8

New data reports from the White House are giving Coloradans a fresh look at how our state is handling the pandemic compared to other states.

Under the Trump administration, the White House COVID-19 team compiled weekly reports that tracked pandemic growth in each state, but the reports were only issued to governors, not the public. The reason the reports were hidden was to encourage states to lead their own response to the pandemic, according to a report by the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity.

The report's latest set of data shows how Colorado stacks up against the rest of the nation. As of Feb. 5, our state's positivity rate, which tracks the percentage of all tests performed that are positive, is 4.5 percent — much lower than the U.S. at large, which is 7.8 percent.

Here are some other important facts from the report:

• Colorado's testing rate per 100,000 people was 3,085, compared to the U.S. rate of 2,854.
• The rate of COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people in Colorado was 1.9 — the U.S. death rate is 6.8.
• Around 11 percent of Colorado hospitals were reporting supply shortages, compared to 21 percent of U.S. hospitals at large.
• Around 6 percent of Colorado hospitals were reporting staff shortages, compared to 16 percent of hospitals in the rest of the country.

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South Carolina, Texas and Arkansas are reporting the most new COVID-19 cases in the country:

Dr. Deborah Birx, a leader of the White House task force under former President Donald Trump, said on a private call last summer that the reports were "critical to really ensure we're all looking at the same data and all looking at the same mitigation efforts," according to a separate report by the Center for Public Integrity.