Colorado Health Officials Want To Increase Coronavirus Testing From 2,000 Per Day To 10,000

DENVER (CBS4)- So far in Colorado, more than 67,000 people have been tested for coronavirus, or about 1% of the population. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment wants to increase that number.

The CDPHE is testing about 2,000 to 3,000 people a day. The organization wants to increase that to about 10,000 people a day.

Health department officials hope to target concentrated areas especially since people could carry the virus and not even know it.

"The more that we learn about his virus, the greater understanding we are developing about asymptomatic transmissions and it's certainly a driver of our goal to start doing more targeted testing in congregate facilities like skilled nursing facilities, prisons and other areas where we really need to be doing asymptomatic testing to stop the spread before it becomes apparent," said Scott Bookman with the CDPHE.

As of Tuesday afternoon, there are 14,316 cases of coronavirus in Colorado with 736 deaths, 2,571 hospitalizations. There have been 67,094 people tested with 149 outbreaks.