Seniors, health care workers and other high risk workers in El Paso County will start receiving COVID-19 booster shots this week, amid a somewhat disjointed roll out of the next round of coronavirus prevention.  

The boosters shots have been anticipated for months to help ward off waning immunity particularly among older adults who were the first to get immunized at the beginning of the year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to vote this week on authorizing Pfizer boosters after a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel voted on Friday to recommend the shots for those 65 and older, health care workers and those who run a high risk of exposure. The FDA rejected a proposal for everyone 16 and older to receive boosters citing a lack of safety data on extra doses and raising doubts about the value of mass boosters, the Associated Press reported. There is no clear timeline for when Moderna or Johnson and Johnson boosters may be approved or recommended, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said. 

While the CDC has yet to reach an official decision, UCHealth is moving forward with distributing boosters to seniors and other high risk people this week, health system spokeswoman Cary Vogrin said. The boosters are for those who were vaccinated six months or more ago. 

UCHealth is offering the booster vaccinations – either Pfizer or Moderna – via appointment because clinical trials and UCHealth’s own data shows protection from vaccines may diminish over time and increase the risk for breakthrough infections, she said.  

“We know booster shots play an important role in the fight against COVID-19, and we’re still in the midst of a pandemic,” said Michelle Barron, senior medical director of infection prevention at UCHealth in a statement. 

Last month, UCHealth started giving third doses of COVID-19 vaccines to immunocompromised patients, including transplant recipients, cancer patients and those taking medications that weaken the immune system. In these cases, the third dose was intended to allow patients with specific conditions to build the same immunity and those who had received two doses, according to the CDC. 

Centura has decided to wait to administer the boosters until the CDC issues its final guidance, spokeswoman Lindsay Radford said. Once the guidance is issued Centura will be ready to give the shots, she said. 

“We anticipate we will see a spike in demand for vaccinations and we are prepared,” she said. 

Gov. Jared Polis promoted the boosters during a news conference Tuesday saying that older adults, including those in their 70s, 80s and 90s can attest that they have a weakened immune system receive a booster shot. 

“There is nobody that needs to come between you and your booster vaccine,” he said. 

The state has plenty of vaccine supply to distribute boosters and initial doses to the unvaccinated, he said. 

Booster clinics for residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities are expected to start this week, the state health department said. 

“We have reached out to approximately 1,100 long term care facilities in the state to offer a clinic or confirm that a COVID-19 vaccine provider has scheduled one for them,” the state said in a statement. 

All long-term care facilities residents should be offered another shot by October 18, it said. 

In El Paso County, the more than 60 long-term care facilities need to have a plan for protecting their residents and staff and the county has been assisting with those plans, said Brenda Heimbach, health services division director at El Paso County Public Health. During the initial vaccine roll out, national pharmacies were contracted to provide vaccines in the long-term care facilities, but that’s not the case this time, she said, during a Board of Health meeting Wednesday. 

The state is not planning to reactivate the same large mass vaccination clinics that operated at the beginning of the year, she said. 

“They feel like the provider network is now broad enough and dispersed more equitably throughout counties that they don’t need to do that any longer,” she said. 

To help meet demand from employer vaccine mandates, vaccination sites at the Chapel Hills and Citadel malls are ramping up, El Paso County Public Health spokeswoman Michelle Hewitt said. 

UCHealth is now allowing residents 65 and older, health care workers that may have contact with COVID-19 patients, emergency medical responders, home health care workers, pharmacy workers, correctional workers, dental staff, funeral services and other health care workers to schedule booster shot appointments.

Schedule a booster vaccine through UCHealth at uchealth.org/access-my-health-connection/.

Once CDC guidance is issued, booster vaccine shots can be scheduled at Centura.org/vaccine.