Colorado has received no new concrete information on the size of its incoming vaccine shipments, Gov. Jared Polis said Wednesday, but the state is moving toward its end-of-February goal of vaccinating the bulk of its oldest residents.
Various state officials have said in recent weeks that March could bring a sizable increase to Colorado's vaccine allotment.
Those weekly shipments could double in size — to 200,000 doses — next month, depending on the approval of a new vaccine by the federal government.
But Polis said Wednesday that officials here "still have limited visibility" into the federal flow of vaccines.
The governor has repeatedly expressed his excitement with President Joe Biden's approach; the commander-in-chief has repeatedly discussed increasing inoculations to the states and recently announced an order of 200 million more doses.
The president has also said that vaccines will be available to every American who wants one by the end of July.
That roughly matches with Colorado's distribution timeline, which calls for the general public to begin receiving its inoculations throughout the summer.
For now, the state is focusing heavily on two priority groups: Those older than 69 years old and its educational workforce.
Polis said 60% of those 70 and up have been inoculated, and the state hopes to bump that up by at least 10 percentage points by the end of February.
Polis again said he was hopeful that the final number would be well over 70%.
Beginning last week and stretching into next week, the state is aiming to vaccinate one-third of its educators each week. Polis said he expected there would be "stragglers" beyond that timeline, but he reiterated his confidence that the vaccine could be successfully distributed to every educator who wants it by the end of the month.
Those 65 and older have started being vaccinated, as well. Polis has couched that expansion — undertaken as many in their 70s and older still await their inoculation — as a way to continue mass inoculation efforts as one group winds down.
The state will make its next foray into a specific group in early March, when it targets essential workers.
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