Colorado teachers and caregivers will be the first essential professionals to be vaccinated against COVID-19, after most people over 70 have received their vaccines, announced the head of the state’s vaccine distribution efforts Monday. market.
High-risk healthcare professionals and nursing home residents – who form Phase 1A of the state’s distribution plan – were the first to receive coronavirus vaccines when shipments began arriving in Colorado last month.
In late December, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said essential workers, from grocery workers to teachers, would be included in Phase 1B, along with people aged 70 and over. A week later, he clarified that these workers would be below a “dotted line” in Phase 1B and would have to wait until more older people had taken their vaccines.
Discussions are underway on priorities in key worker groups, said the Colorado National Guard Brig. Gen. Scott Sherman, but the consensus was formed around the importance of reopening daycare centers, preschools and elementary and high schools.
“Teachers will be the first priority … for personal learning,” Sherman said during a morning press conference.
Scott Bookman, the commander of the state department of health’s COVID-19 incident, also announced that the state has created a hotline for people who had trouble signing up for the vaccine: 877-268-2926 (CO-VAX-CO). The state does not maintain a central waiting list, but the hotline will help connect people who qualify to providers who can apply, he said.
If the state meets its goal of vaccinating 70% of coloradans aged 70 or older by February 28, essential workers can start taking their vaccines in late February or early March. If nothing changes in the prioritization schedule, people in their 60s or younger with chronic conditions who are not frontline workers will come next as part of Phase 2 this spring, with healthy young people and middle-aged adults. – Phase 3 – your turn is coming in the summer.
The state health department estimates that Colorado has about 562,000 residents aged 70 and over and about 628,000 essential frontline workers.
Governor Jared Polis said earlier that when about half of a priority group is immunized, the state will open access to the next group. The idea is to avoid delays by adhering to priorities too rigidly, he said.
Some teachers took their first photos during the week before the state’s orientation changed to prioritize people over 70. Those who received an injection were allowed to take the second, but their co-workers who did not get the vaccine so quickly had to keep waiting.
Support staff in some metropolitan area districts, including the Denver Public Schools, may be vaccinated at this stage. Districts consider mental health professionals and physiotherapists to be medical teams and security guards the first to respond, according to Chalkbeat.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that Colorado ranks ninth in the country as a percentage of its vaccinated population, said Sherman.
Colorado administered 458,441 doses of COVID-19 vaccines early Monday morning, according to state officials. As of Sunday, the state had received 594,440 doses.
Polis renewed his appeal to the Biden government on Monday to speed up distribution and take more doses to Colorado.
“Colorado is ready to immediately use three to four times more vaccines than we are getting each week,” said Polis in a statement. “The sooner Colorado gets more vaccines, the faster we can put them in the arms and the faster we can help our small businesses and the economy to become stronger. We are ready and we welcome the renewed federal assistance to do the job ”.
Sherman estimated that about 85% of frontline health workers received both doses of the vaccine, and 98% of nursing homes and assisted living facilities had at least one clinic where the vaccine was administered. However, it is unclear what percentage of residents and long-term care workers chose to do the injection.
Providers across the state could vaccinate more people, but they don’t have enough doses to meet demand right now, Bookman said.
“We asked the feds to send us as much vaccine as possible,” he said. “If we could get 5 million vaccines tomorrow, we would get them.”