DENVER – While Governor Jared Polis’s announcement Wednesday that coloradans 70 and older will be included in Phase 1B of the vaccine distribution plan was welcome news for many seniors, it was also a surprise to local public health departments that were not yet ready to distribute to the broader group.
Several public health departments across the state said they were not notified of changes in vaccine groups prior to the Wednesday morning announcement and were left to answer calls and emails from people in their counties wondering when and where they could vaccinated, but could not answer these questions.
Surprise and confusion among health departments, seniors about the launch of the vaccine for people in Colorado over 70
“I would say I received emails about 5 minutes after the announcement and have received hundreds of emails and phone calls since then,” said Chana Goussetis, a public health spokesman for Boulder County.
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Goussetis said the department was trying to respond to each email and phone call one by one, but that a plan to include people in the updated Phase 1B was underway and, hopefully, would be launched next week.
“But we haven’t figured that out yet and we also need to ask people to be patient. We don’t have the vaccine stock for everyone at the moment, so it will take some time, ”she said.
The lack of an unaccounted vaccine in many Colorado counties is among the reasons why local public health departments, such as Boulder County and Jefferson County, say they are not yet ready to begin distribution to the larger group. broad, despite Polis’ hopes declaring on Wednesday the group could potentially receive its first vaccines in the next 4-5 weeks.
Jefferson County Public Health said late on Wednesday that it continues to prioritize vaccination of health workers and first responders, and that limited amounts of the vaccine mean they are not yet moving into expanded Phase 1B and are still in the development phase. planning.
“As these plans develop, we will be communicating them to our Jefferson County community and the key groups that will be the next to be vaccinated, including those aged 70 and over,” said the JCPH in a statement.
Summit County announced ahead of the governor’s announcement on Wednesday that it would vaccinate people over 75, but changed that group to 70+ to comply with the state after the announcement. But they have a surplus of vaccine doses and planned ahead of time to vaccinate the elderly.
“Summit County received several hundred more doses of the Modern vaccine than originally planned, and we are happy to be able to offer our residents in one of the highest risk categories the opportunity to receive the vaccine to protect themselves this week,” said Summit County Director of Public Health Amy Wineland.
MORE: Any Coloradan 70 or older can receive the COVID-19 vaccine now, depending on the delivery
Health officials there had more than 800 doses to start on Wednesday, but say they will need more remittances before they can vaccinate the nearly 3,000 people over 70 in the county who want to be vaccinated.
In Eagle County, only county residents aged 70 or older will be allowed to get the vaccine. There are three clinics scheduled for next week – Thursday in Eagle, Friday in El Jebel and Saturday in Edwards – where people can be vaccinated. The county will begin scheduling appointments on Monday.
In Denver, firefighters and front-line policemen started getting vaccinated this week. The city said it is partnering with Safeway Pharmacies to vaccinate health workers and first responders in Phases 1A and 1B and would work with the state to coordinate vaccination for the broader group 1B and the next two phases to follow.
Grand County said it is in the final stages of Phase 1A and will begin work on the first part of Phase 1B – health professionals, first responders and people over 70 – soon. The county said it would not begin the second part of Phase 1B – which includes key frontline workers, key government officials and key frontline journalists – until it receives specific guidance from the governor’s office and CDPHE.
The Delta County Health Department said on Thursday that it is still in Phase 1A and would begin Phase 1B as soon as it ends with 1A.
Goussetis said in Boulder County, the new additions to Phase 1B add about 30,000 more people who could be vaccinated and that vaccine supplies were far short of that.
“So it will still take a good number of months to be able to put the vaccine in everyone’s arms for Phase 1,” she said.
Polis and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said the schedule for vaccinating Phase 1 recipients depended on meeting the federal supply chain schedule, but Colorado and other states sometimes received fewer vaccines than they expected.
“We never really know exactly how many vaccines we are going to get. We don’t know exactly when we are going to get them, so it is very difficult to establish clinics to give the vaccine to people when we don’t know how much we will have, ”said Goussetis.
She advised people not to call pharmacies to try to find out more about when they could be vaccinated, saying pharmacies don’t know either.
CDPHE is also including frontline and essential employees and government officials in 1B, as well as people aged 70 and over. The department said in a press release on Wednesday that it hopes to have vaccinated “most phase 1A health workers” by January 15.
CDPHE said it is “coordinating with local public health agencies, health care providers, pharmacies and various community partners” to distribute the vaccine during Phase 1. Some members of the group will be vaccinated through their employer, health agency publicly, a vaccine supplier, or through a federal long-term care pharmacy partnership program.
“For individuals who do not receive the vaccine through one of these options, the state is actively working with local public health agencies to determine which additional providers will vaccinate members of groups 1A and 1B. Several counties are planning to maintain mass vaccination clinics for members of their communities. In the coming days and as more information is finalized, we will post additional vaccine distribution sites on the state’s website, ”said the CDPHE in Wednesday’s release.
Denver Health said it is accelerating plans to vaccinate “as many people as possible in the expanded group in the coming weeks” and said that priority would be given to patients 70 years of age or older who received medical care at a Denver health facility within the past three years.
“We hope to start vaccinating these high-priority individuals immediately and will contact patients and staff on the week of January 4 with more information about when and where they can be scheduled. Our accelerated efforts are likely to include offering vaccines on the Denver Health campus at our community health centers and using our mobile clinics, ”said Denver Health in a statement.
Centura Health said it is in the process of notifying 1B recipients, finalizing which clinics they will work with and doubling the injection clinic’s capacity. The company said it would be inviting people aged 70 and over to be vaccinated through its Centura account and email. Centura said he will choose a list of patients who qualify for the group and a computer will choose who gets the vaccine first.
UCHealth said it started providing vaccines to a limited number of elderly people aged 75 and over because it has a limited number of vaccines, but that it will soon expand to. People aged 70 or over. The company said it will also send messages to customers’ My Health Connection accounts that will allow them to schedule an appointment. But they said that people should remain patient.
“Invitations are being sent at random to people in this age group through the electronic medical records portal for patients known as My Health Connection,” said the company. “Although supplies of coronavirus vaccines for the elderly are still very limited and insufficient to vaccinate everyone at this point, random selection and the nomination process help to ensure that the process is safe and fair for everyone. Plans to offer vaccines to underprivileged populations and those who do not have a My Health Connection account are also being developed. “
Several coloradans almost 70 years old or more expressed frustration at the lack of clarity about when they can be vaccinated.
“You told me that I can get the vaccine, but you don’t tell me how or when,” said Mitch Cannon, 73, who said he found the COHELP hotline and vaccination sites useless.
“They couldn’t say much about anything and everything is pre-recorded,” added Cannon.
Tim Gognat, a 69-year-old Lakewood resident who turns 70 in the spring and says he has pre-existing conditions, said he spent the morning on the phone and calling his doctor and another one before calling the hotline.
“It took me 30 minutes on hold to get in touch with someone there. They had no guidance, or could not provide a place where I could go or ask about the vaccine, ”he said. “So there seems to be a little bit of confusion in terms of availability and time.”
“It would be very important if the governor’s office and public health officials clarified things with the news agencies and the general public. This would avoid a lot of confusion and a lot of wasted effort, ”added Gognat.
In an interview with Denver7 on Thursday, Governor Polis told people to be patient and follow his 4-5 week schedule to vaccinate the group of people aged 70 and over with their first dose.
“I know that nobody wants to be patient; we all want it now, right? You will be contacted by your provider when there is an opportunity to make an appointment. But look, if you’re over 70, you can get that in 4-5 weeks, ”said Polis. “… I know it’s hard to be patient, and the days are important because you want to go out with your grandchildren, your family, you want to go out. But we will go through the entire group of 70 and over in 4 to 5 weeks. “
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