© 2024 Aspen Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

All Colorado adults can get boosters after Gov. Polis declares entire state at high risk from COVID

In this Oct. 23, 2021 photo, a sign notifies customers that COVID-19 vaccinations are available at a pharmacy in a grocery store in Monument, Colorado.
David Zalubowski
/
AP
In this Oct. 23, 2021 photo, a sign notifies customers that COVID-19 vaccinations are available at a pharmacy in a grocery store in Monument, Colorado.

Gov. Jared Polis has signed an executive order allowing all adults in Colorado to get COVID-19 vaccine booster shots regardless of their age or occupation.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had limited booster eligibility to adults over the age of 65, adults with underlying medical conditions or who live in long-term care facilities, and those whose jobs or occupational setting put them at high risk of contracting the disease.

Polis is expanding that eligibility by declaring the entire state of Colorado at high risk for the disease.

He hopes giving out more booster shots will keep more people out of hospitals, which public health officials fear could run out of beds by the end of December.

Coloradans who got the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines can get boosters six months after their second doses. Johnson & Johnson recipients can get one two months after the single dose.

Polis’ executive order says no vaccine provider can turn away someone 18 or older if enough time has passed since their initial dose.

“We want to ensure that Coloradans have every tool they need to protect themselves from this deadly virus and to help reduce the stress on our hospitals and health care workers,” Polis said in a written statement.

More than 1,490 Coloradans were in the hospital with COVID-19 as of Wednesday. The state health department estimated earlier this week that as many as one in 48 residents was currently infected by the disease.

Learn more about how to get a booster shot in Northern Colorado  here.

Copyright 2021 KUNC. To see more, visit KUNC.

Scott Franz is a government watchdog reporter and photographer from Steamboat Springs. He spent the last seven years covering politics and government for the Steamboat Pilot & Today, a daily newspaper in northwest Colorado. His reporting in Steamboat stopped a police station from being built in a city park, saved a historic barn from being destroyed and helped a small town pastor quickly find a kidney donor. His favorite workday in Steamboat was Tuesday, when he could spend many of his mornings skiing untracked powder and his evenings covering city council meetings. Scott received his journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is an outdoorsman who spends at least 20 nights a year in a tent. He spoke his first word, 'outside', as a toddler in Edmonds, Washington. Scott visits the Great Sand Dunes, his favorite Colorado backpacking destination, twice a year. Scott's reporting is part of Capitol Coverage, a collaborative public policy reporting project, providing news and analysis to communities across Colorado for more than a decade. Fifteen public radio stations participate in Capitol Coverage from throughout Colorado.