DENVER (KDVR) — Have you ever wondered how effective a booster really is if you’re already fully vaccinated?
In a news briefing Thursday, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment COVID-19 Incident Commander Scott Bookman outlined the protection boosted Coloradans have compared to other populations.
“It is becoming clearer and clearer how important booster doses are,” Bookman said. “We need to get more Coloradans to get their booster.”
So far, more than 1.1 million Coloradans have received a booster dose. That represents 42.9% of the eligible population, according to CDPHE.
According to Bookman, boosted Coloradans are 2.4 times less likely to get infected with COVID-19 than people who have received two shots of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or one shot of Johnson & Johnson.
That boosted protection means you’re nearly ten times (9.7) less likely to catch COVID-19 than an unvaccinated individual.
The hospitalization impact is even more drastic, according to CDPHE.
Boosted Coloradans are 3.3 times less likely to be hospitalized than their fully-vaccinated counterparts, and 47.5 times less likely to end up in the hospital with COVID-19 than someone who is unvaccinated.
As of Thursday, state data shows 84% of Coloradans in the hospital with COVID-19 are unvaccinated. The age groups of fully-vaccinated hospitalized breakthrough cases tend to track at least ten years older than the unvaccinated on average in Colorado.