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.
