Colorado has changed its vaccine distribution plan to give higher priority to residents who are 70 years or older, along with essential frontline workers.
Gov. Jared Polis says the vaccines for older Coloradans are starting now in counties that have completed distributing their first doses to frontline health care workers.
Polis estimates it should take about four to five weeks to get the vaccines to any Coloradan aged 70 or older who wants it.
“If you’re 70 and up, you really, really, really, really, really should want it,” Polis said. “While we lose people of all ages, 78% of those we’ve lost to coronavirus are over age 70.”
Meanwhile, teachers, grocery store employees, bus drivers and other frontline workers are also being moved up in line to the so-called 1-B phase of vaccinations happening this winter.
Polis says the changes were made to protect those most at risk of dying from the virus and to match new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“For a lot of these other groups — teachers, food and ag workers — we will be scheduling with the county health departments and with other providers (to set up) largely employment-based, site-based clinics for that,” Polis said.
He suggested those might occur in mid-February.
The governor cautioned that the vaccine timeline is still dependent on how quickly the state gets doses from the federal government.
