Alliance for Kids is sharing a message from El Paso County Public Health:
Preserving in-person education and child care in El Paso County has been a priority since the beginning of our COVID-19 response efforts in early 2020. Today [January 29], Gov. Polis announced his commitment to educators and child care providers by prioritizing Pre-K-12 educators and child care providers’ access to COVID-19 vaccines effective February 8, 2021, in Phase 1B.1 of the state’s phased distribution plan. El Paso County Public Health looks forward to working with our Phase 1 vaccine providers to accomplish this important task.
Phase 1 vaccine providers in El Paso County are working collaboratively to assure that vaccine received in El Paso County is administered in a coordinated and efficient manner. Currently, the largest barrier is a lack of sufficient supply of the vaccine; however, we anticipate supply will increase in the coming weeks. We are currently planning with our Phase 1 providers to assure that there is a streamlined effort to vaccinate frontline essential workers in education in a coordinated, fair and equitable manner. We will continue to prioritize these efforts and share details of these plans as they become available.
In order to support this unprecedented vaccination effort, there are steps that can be taken now to help streamline this process. Please share the following link with your staff to provide them with information regarding the vaccines currently available: covid19.colorado.gov/vaccine-faq. For the link to the state’s updated phased distribution plan – click here, and we encourage your staff members to seek the vaccine at an earlier phase if they meet those eligibility criteria. Individuals who have questions regarding their personal health history as it relates to vaccination are encouraged to discuss those with their primary care provider to help inform their decisions. We would also request child cares survey their staff to assess who will be willing to accept the vaccine once it is available. By identifying staff who wish to be vaccinated and compiling that information now, we will be better poised to move quickly to vaccinations as they become available. As we finalize plans with Phase 1 providers, we will provide more details regarding how these staff lists will be used to facilitate an equitable vaccine administration process.
While we continue to plan for these efforts, we are also working to complete the current priority groups. Current priority groups eligible for vaccine in El Paso County include:
- Health care workers with less direct contact with COVID-19 patients (e.g., home health, hospice, pharmacy, dental, etc.) and EMS
- Firefighters, police, COVID-19 response personnel, correctional workers, and funeral services
- People age 70 and older
Lastly, as was stated above, vaccine distribution is still very limited, and providers in our community can move only as quickly as the number of vaccine doses available. As we begin to move into the next phases it will take many weeks to schedule staff, administer vaccinations, and accomplish this important work. In El Paso County we are committed to working closely with our Phase 1 providers to maximize the use of our community’s health care infrastructure in an efficient and effective manner. We will continue to provide information as it becomes available. Thank you for your continued partnership.
For more information, please visit:ElPasoCountyHealth.org.
Email questions:SchoolsCOVID19@elpasoco.com