UpdatedMon, Dec 14, 2020 at 8:40 pm MT
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FORT COLLINS, CO Some of Colorado s front-line health care workers received the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine Monday.
Kevin Londrigan, a respiratory therapist at UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies, was the first Coloradan to receive the vaccine. Londrigan has underlying health conditions, and the majority of his patients have COVID-19, hospital officials said.
Colorado received its first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday morning, and the first doses go to high-risk health care workers those who have direct contact with COVID-19 patients for 15 minutes or more.
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The state ordered 46,800 doses in the Pfizer shipment and 95,600 doses in the first Moderna shipment.
The Denver Post
The first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Colorado on Monday, a milestone in a pandemic that has infected hundreds of thousands of residents and contributed to the deaths of nearly 4,000 people in the 10 months since public health officials first confirmed its presence in the state.
The state’s initial shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer arrived Monday morning, and the first doses to be received by Coloradans will be administered to frontline medical workers at UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins in the afternoon, according to governor’s office.
Gov. Jared Polis is encouraging hospitals to administer any COVID-19 doses they get within 72 hours of receiving the vaccine, saying in a statement that the state’s ability to report the shots given “is paramount to Colorado’s ability to receive future allocations of COVID vaccine and end this public health crisis.”
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) A frontline medical worker got Colorado’s first COVID-19 vaccination shot Monday, launching what’s expected to be a months-long effort to inoculate people statewide against the coronavirus.
“The vaccine isn’t the end of it, but it is the light at the end of the tunnel,” respiratory therapist Kevin Londrigan said before getting the shot at UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins.
Hospital officials were giving vaccination shots to 20 healthcare workers Monday as Gov. Jared Polis looked on. Another 20 were set for shots Monday at UCHealth’s Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, The Denver Post reported.
“Whoever thought we’d be excited to see a needle?” Polis said.
Earlier Monday, Polis personally signed for Colorado’s first delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine as part of the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history.
On a frigid morning in Denver, a FedEx driver delivered a box containing 975 frozen vials of the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and its German partner, BioNTech, to Colorado’s state health department laboratory.
Polis eagerly signed for the package. After opening the box, he held down a tracking device for five seconds to confirm that Colorado had received the doses. A small tray of doses inside the box was then put in a freezer obtained by the state just for the vaccine.