January 2021 VACCINE PRIORITIZATION UPDATE Today, Governor Polis and Jill Hunsaker Ryan, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), provided an update on the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccine plan prioritization process. The State is off to a great start in 2021, and Colorado is ranked among the top 20 states in the country for the most successful vaccination programs. The Governor emphasized that the administration’s top priority remains to ensure that vaccines are distributed as rapidly and safely as possible. And in order to return to our normal way of life in a responsible way, mass vaccination is critical. Director Ryan also reiterated the importance of distributing vaccines and vaccinating as many Coloradans as quickly as the federal chain supply will allow. This statewide mission to vaccinate Coloradans in mass includes updates in the prioritization plan to ensure that our highest-risk populations, especially, are not left behind. That’s why the Governor announced last week that Coloradans age 70 and up will now be included in Phase 1B. 78% of all COVID related deaths in Colorado have come from this age group. The more quickly we can get this group vaccinated, the more lives we can save. The total estimated number of Coloradans eligible to be vaccinated in Phase 1B is 1,315,000, and includes frontline essential workers in the following industries: Education, food and agriculture, manufacturing, U.S. postal service, public transit and specialized transportation staff, grocery, public health, frontline essential human service workers, and direct care providers for Coloradans experiencing homelessness; Essential officials from executive, legislative, and judicial branches of state government; and Essential frontline journalists. The State remains hopeful that Phase 1 can be completed this winter and the move to Phase 2 can happen by the spring. It is still expected that Colorado’s general population will have access to the vaccine by the summer. EQUITABLE VACCINE DISTRIBUTION Governor Polis today applauded the collaborative efforts of community partners across Colorado working to ensure that hard to reach communities have access to the vaccine: Last weekend, Valley Wide Health partnered with the local fire department and sheriff’s department to stand up a drive-through vaccination clinic for Coloradans 70+ in San Luis and Center. More than 250 Coloradans age 70 and up received vaccines at these events. Additionally, Colorado is working with the state’s major health systems to set up information online portals where Coloradans can sign up to receive information about the vaccine. Next week, the State expects that local public health will have the infrastructure in place to begin planning vaccines for the essential workforce. You can find an initial list of provider contacts for Coloradans 70 and up below: UCHealth: UCHealth is using My Health Connection, their online patient portal, to communicate with patients. If you are a current UCHealth patient and do not have an active My Health Connection account, please sign up at UCHealth’s website. Denver Health: Find instructions to create a MyChart account at Denver Health’s website. Centura Health: Provider Search | COVID-19 Information Center Banner Health System: Surveys are included in the links below to determine if you are eligible to receive the vaccine. Center Summit View in Weld County Fort Collins Lady Moon in Larimer County Banner Family Medicine-Brush in Morgan County Banner Health Family Care Clinic in Logan County Kaiser Permanente: For Kaiser Permanente members 70+ (and others in eligible 1A and 1B categories) visit Kaiser Permanente’s vaccine webpage to complete the “COVID-19 vaccine sign up.” Vail Health: Visit Vail Health’s website to make an appointment and see their clinic schedule. Boulder Community Health: Boulder Community Health is contacting current patients age 70 and older on an ongoing basis to encourage them to schedule vaccinations. HealthONE (coming soon): At this point, HealthONE’s network of hospitals only have enough vaccines for colleagues. Please check HealthONE’s website for updated details. For more details about the vaccine registration process for Coloradans over 70, please visit covid19.colorado.gov/vaccine/vaccine-for-coloradans. PROTECTING COLORADO'S STUDENTS AND EDUCATORS Testing is an essential part of suppressing the virus and getting Colorado kids back into the classroom. That’s why Governor Polis was proud to announce that masks, including surgical masks, will continue to be provided to educators throughout the rest of the school year as part of efforts to protect Colorado’s teachers. Colorado school districts can now also sign up for home-use COVID testing done via Binax. Through this program with testing partner, Binax, in which Colorado is one of three states participating, we expect that Colorado school districts will have access to over 1 million tests per month! These tests are available for: Symptomatic individuals; Exposed individuals without symptoms; and for Regular surveillance testing. Testing will be conducted with telehealth support and these health professionals will report results to CDPHE and local public health agencies. Superintendents across Colorado have been notified of this program and will be sent information to sign up, and school districts that opt-in to this program will be able to order tests that are shipped directly to the homes of teachers and other school staff. The Governor thanked Director Ryan and the team she leads at CDPHE for their incredible work scaling up testing, elevating Colorado as a leader on the forefront of easy, inexpensive, and accessible rapid testing from home. RACE AGAINST THE VIRUS The Governor reminded Coloradans that these next couple of months are going to be a race against the virus. In order to win, we’re going to need to vaccinate as many people as we can -- especially our highest-risk populations. Until we can widely administer the vaccine, we all have to do our part to prevent loss of life and further spread of the virus. Coloradans should continue to: Wear a mask Stay at least 6 feet away from others Avoid social interactions with those outside your home If we completely abandon the strategies we know keep us safe, then we’re going to lose this race. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Visit Website Office of Governor Jared Polis | 136 State Capitol , Denver, CO 80203 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | About our service provider Sent by [email protected]