An unsettling statistic has Colorado's governor reaching out to Vice President Mike Pence for more medical supplies.

"We are facing a crisis-level shortage of these essential supplies to protect our health care workers and first responders," Colorado Governor Jared Polis wrote in a letter to Vice President Pence. "Colorado’s COVID-19 death rate is rising faster than any other state right now; the pandemic is spreading so fast that lags in testing are masking the true conditions experienced by Coloradans across the state. I fear that because of our comparably smaller population, the staggering increases in cases and deaths are not fully registering in national models. What we are experiencing in Colorado is far worse than we imagined."

As of Thursday, there were 97 COVID-19 related deaths across Colorado. An increase of more than a dozen from the day before.

to read the full letter.

The governor of Colorado requested the following:

10,000 ventilators, and associated equipment and pharmaceuticals

2,000,000 N95 masks

4,460,000 surgical masks

720,000 gowns

880,000 face shields

4,300,000 pair gloves -- small, medium, and large

“I am asking that you increase the ventilators and PPE that is being sent to Colorado for this critical moment, to help us safely cross the bridge ahead of us until we can start to reap the benefits of our other unprecedented procurement and manufacturing efforts,” the governor’s letter concludes.