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Boulder County health officials discuss challenges of vaccine rollout

Boulder County receives only a fraction of the vaccines it is ramped up to administer.
chis campbell jan 20, 2021
Chris Campbell, emergency management coordinator for Boulder County, speaks during Wednesday's Boulder County Community COVID update.

Health officials and providers say they have the ability to give thousands of COVID-19 injections to Boulder County residents but are slowed by a lack of available vaccines.

“Vaccine allocation is still a challenge,” said Chris Campbell, emergency management coordinator with Boulder County Public Health. “We are at the phase where we are in an ... environment with limited vaccines.”

Campbell spoke Wednesday during a weekly video update on the COVID-19 virus in Boulder County. The session also included several community providers of the vaccine.

As many as 17,000 people have received the first round of COVID shots, while 2,500 have gotten the second recommended dose, Campbell said.

As many as 31 providers in the county are in line to provide the vaccine. “On a weekly basis we can provide 20,000 vaccinations to Boulder County residents but we have only 3,500 vaccine allocations,” Campbell said.

A recent decision from Gov. Jared Polis to move up residents ages 70 and older on the priority list for vaccines caught local officials off guard he said. “The information has been challenging, a little confusing at times,” Campbell said.

There is still no single link residents can go to for COVID-19 information and to sign up for a vaccination, Campbell said. People should go to their medical provider's website and sign up for a vaccine, he added.

“We know it’s challenging,” Campbell said. “Our goal is to have a lot of options out there for you to go to.”

Jackie Allesey-Pries, chief nursing officer for Boulder Community Health, said the provider has given over 8,000 vaccines in first doses, including 6,000 for community members over 70, at its Foothills clinic. “We can do 1,500 a day right now but the limiting factor is getting enough vaccines to our clinic,” Allesey-Pries said.

Salud Family Health Centers has distributed 6,227 vaccines through its entire system and 862 to its two Longmont locations, said Jennifer Morse, the system’s development director.

The clinics have been reaching out to patients using care managers, Morse said. Many of patients, however, don’t have access to technology to allow them to get updates and make appointments, she said.

Reaching them is a priority, Morse said.