Vaccines for those older than 70 now offered

UCHealth and Banner Health have begun to administer COVID-19 vaccine doses to people 70 years old and older as doses are available.

UCHealth has administered initial doses to more than 32,000 people and second doses to an additional 1,000 health-care workers. It began offering vaccines to people 70 and older, who are included in the state’s phase 1 distribution plan for the vaccine.

Banner began administering second doses to health-care workers Thursday and has distributed  35,000 doses across the Banner system so far. Banner has operations in multiple states. Vaccines for people 70 years and older are administered as they are available, according to Sara Quale, spokeswoman for Banner in Northern Colorado.

UCHealth said it hopes to vaccinate 70% of those older than 70 by the end of February. 

“There currently is not enough vaccine to provide it to everyone, even within the phase 1 groups. So to offer the vaccine as fairly as possible, UCHealth is randomly selecting patients who are 70 years old or older to receive invitations,” UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jean Kutner said in a press release.  

Information about UCHealth’s vaccine distribution plan is available on its website at uchealth.org/covidvaccine. Anyone 70 and older, including those who are not current UCHealth patients, will be entered into the random selection process to receive invitations to schedule a vaccine appointment. Anyone less than 70 will be notified when vaccinations are available for their respective phase, as directed by CDPHE. 

Banner’s vaccine plans and appointment system can be accessed from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment website and are broken out geographically by Banner service areas. For Weld County residents, information can be found here. For Larimer County residents, information is located here.

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