DENVER (KDVR) — Health officials are watching a slight uptick in the number of COVID cases in Colorado.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported the number of new COVID cases has increased in the last few weeks and is at the highest level of the summer.

Dr. Carrie Horn, the chief medical officer at National Jewish Health in Denver, offered some perspective.

“I do think there is a real increase, again the hospitalizations will trail behind that a little bit, and while we have seen a bit of an increase, it hasn’t been severe,” she said. “Thankfully these later variants seem to be a little less harmful.”

Horn said with school starting next week in some areas, doctors are keeping an eye on the numbers.

“I think we are going to see things increase a little bit more as school starts back up again. You are putting a lot of people and kids in classrooms together,” she said.

Families should continue taking all the same safety precautions she said.