Colorado Receives First Shipment of COVID-19 Vaccine

Gov. Polis, State Officials Welcome Vaccine Shipment

DENVER - The state of Colorado received its first shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine today. Governor Jared Polis personally signed for and received the first shipment of the vaccine this morning at the State Lab in Denver. The Governor was joined by Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) staff, CDPHE incident commander Scott Bookman, Dr. Rachel Herlihy, State of Colorado Lead Epidemiologist, and Brigadier General Scott Sherman, Dir. of Joint Vaccine Task Force and the Colorado National Guard. 

“This is great news for our health care workers and those at highest risk in our state & the beginning of the end of the pandemic,” said Governor Polis. “This vaccine is an amazing scientific triumph for humanity and the distribution which starts today is a historic undertaking. We still have a ways to go and Coloradans should double down now and continue to do what we know works in the fight against this virus and that’s wearing masks, physically distancing, and avoiding personal gatherings.”

This afternoon, Governor Polis will join frontline health care workers today at 2 pm in Fort Collins as the health care workers will receive the first doses of the vaccine in the state.  

Deliveries will continue on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week to the remaining 21 vaccine recipient sites. The State lab received 975 doses,  UCHealth Poudre Valley received 3900 doses and Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs received 3900. 

This weekend, Governor Polis urged Colorado hospitals to administer the COVID-19 vaccination within 72 hours of receiving the vaccine.

Information about the 2 pm vaccine administration for frontline health care workers at UC Health Poudre Valley Hospital: KUSA is the television pool, KUNC is the radio pool, The Denver Post is the print/digital/photography pool.