DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado hospitals are finalizing COVID-19 vaccination distribution plans as the first doses are expected to arrive in a matter of days.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) released a list Friday, showing how the 46,800 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 95,600 doses of the later-expected Moderna vaccine will be allocated to hospitals across the state.
The UCHealth system is expected to receive roughly 17,000 doses of the initial shipment with 7,800 of those going to University of Colorado Hospital. Dr. Michelle Barron, Medical Director of Infection Prevention at UCHealth, says they weren’t entirely sure how many doses they would receive until the official announcement from the state.
“We had no idea what to anticipate. We were just hopeful we were going to and we were hoping that we would have enough for what is now the 1A grouping,” Barron said.
Barron says based on the number of initial doses, they do expect to have enough to cover group 1A, which includes emergency department, ICU and COVID unit staff members. She expects they will have enough doses to cover part of group 1B as well.
UCHealth will use a scheduling system to set up appointments with those who are eligible for the first rounds. Dr. Barron says that process has not started yet.
“I think until the vaccine is literally in our hands and we can say with definitive that we know for sure that it’s here, then we’ll open that up,” Barron said.
She anticipates that will happen throughout the next week. Barron says they want to administer the doses quickly but also safely, and will not vaccinate entire departments at once in the event that a portion of the recipients experience some sort of reaction to the vaccine.
“We don’t anticipate those being very frequent but you just don’t know. If you do the entire emergency department and people that were scheduled to work end up not coming in, it just makes things a little complicated and you want to avoid it,” Barron said.
It’s unknown how many doses UCHealth plans to administer per day, initially. Barron says they expect it will take a couple weeks to get through the first rounds and they have a plan to ensure all doses are used.
“At the end of the day if there are extra doses that didn’t get used because somebody didn’t show up, we will have somebody available that can get the vaccination so we’re not wasting any product,” Barron said.
Barron says they are still waiting on guidance from the Advisor Council on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the group that sets recommendations regarding vaccinations and how they are administered.
She says although the FDA has issued final approval for the Pfizer vaccine, ACIP could still make a recommendation other than what has been published. She expects guidelines from ACIP to come by Monday.