The latest report from the team, released Thursday, Oct. 6, showed hospitalizations declining slowly over the next 12 weeks, with the caveat that a new variant could throw that off. It’s also possible that the number of severe illnesses will remain essentially on a plateau, said Bailey Fosdick, a member of the team and associate professor of biostatistics and informatics at the Colorado School of Public Health. “Over the next 12 weeks, we’re pretty confident things will stay low,” she said.