REMOTE, (Mar. 4, 2021): Because of the Colorado Vaccine Task Force’s dedication to transparency, Colorado is publicly releasing its allocation criteria for distributing the vaccine across the state.
In the first several weeks, Colorado’s allocation process was primarily focused on logistics and provider readiness to store and quickly distribute vaccines. Colorado then transitioned to taking into account county population and the current prioritized populations and focused distribution of vaccines to providers that were vaccinating those populations. As enrolled COVID vaccine providers and vaccine supplies have increased, Colorado is transitioning to a standard allocation that includes the following factors:
- % weekly allocation at the health system/provider and local public health agency (LPHA) level.
- Average weekly throughput at the health system/provider and local public health agency level.
- Provider-identified maximum weekly throughput.
- % county population.
- # and size of planned community vaccination sites.
This process ensures doses are distributed in an equitable manner throughout the state to move all Colorado counties collectively through the vaccination prioritization phases as quickly as possible. The allocation is generally divided across vaccine providers as follows:
- Equity clinics: 15%
- Enrolled providers: 85%
- Hospital/health systems/pharmacies: 60%
- Local public health agencies: 20%
- Safety net clinic: 20%
As shown on the vaccine dashboard, there are a few counties that still have received 1-2% fewer doses than their portion of the state’s population. The Vaccine Task Force is in close contact with these counties to work to rectify these gaps and help them scale up to get more vaccines administered in their counties.
Colorado will continue to prioritize transparency in vaccine distribution and allocation. This allocation criteria does not include doses allocated directly from the federal government to pharmacies, Federally Qualified Health Centers, or some federal agencies with staff in Colorado.
Continue to stay up to date by visiting covid19.colorado.gov.
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