CO Hospitals Urged To Begin Vaccination Within 3 Days Of Receipt

Some of Colorado's front-line health care workers are expected to receive their first doses of COVID-19 vaccination this week.

Gov. Jared Polis issued a letter Sunday to Colorado hospitals that urged them to begin the vaccinations within 72 hours of receipt.

"We need to be ready to hit the ground running," the governor's letter read.

"Our ability to quickly vaccinate prioritized populations and report those doses as administered to the Colorado Immunization Information System is paramount to Colorado’s ability to receive future allocations of COVID vaccine and end this public health crisis.

"With vaccine distribution plans coming together, I ask that you please affirm that your facility/organization is able to administer the COVID vaccinations within 72 hours of receiving the vaccine,” the letter read.

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Colorado received its first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday morning. The state ordered 46,800 doses in the Pfizer shipment and 95,600 doses in the first Moderna shipment, but it's unclear when all initial doses will arrive.

Most hospitals will receive only a few hundred doses each in the initial round, but some will receive more than 1,000, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Colorado is preparing to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine in three phases over the next nine months.

High-risk health care workers — those who have direct contact with COVID-19 patients for 15 minutes or more — will be the first to receive the vaccine: