El Paso County lags behind state in vaccinations for seniors over 70

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- While Governor Jared Polis touts the success of Colorado's February goal of getting 70% of people over 70 vaccinated, El Paso County is falling behind.

A release from El Paso County Public Health shows that in the county, vaccines have only been administered to 56% of seniors over 70 years old.

In February, 13 Investigates revealed that El Paso County was given far fewer than their fair share of doses. Since then, the state tried to make up for the discrepancy by sending 25,000 more doses to the county. Still, the numbers lag. It appears the rate of those over 70 getting vaccinated in El Paso County is also slowing from February.

On Tuesday, El Paso County Commissioner Longinos Gonzalez, Jr., who serves District 4, said he's pushing for answers from the state.

"I'm asking for an investigation into CDPHE, addressing, identifying what is the issue, they have not been transparent in their distribution policy and metrics and I ask that they publish that," Commissioner Gonzalez said.

KRDO reached out to CDPHE about this and at the time of this article have not heard back.

We then reached out to El Paso County Public Health for their response to the county's numbers falling behind, they responded with the following statement:

It’s important to note that vaccine supply and allocations have fluctuated from week to week and month to month, so it’s challenging to look at increases per day. The rate of vaccinations is very unlikely to be the same from week to week. On our vaccine dashboard, we do have seven-day daily averages which help provide a better sense of trends over time. We do know that there have been previous discrepancies in vaccine allocation as proportionate to a county our size, and we have been very persistent in working with the state to achieve sustainable and increased supplies.

As we get further into each priority group, the rate of vaccinations will naturally slow down as there are fewer people left to vaccinate and additional populations are added into the state’s vaccine phasing. Even with those additional groups, Public Health is working to make sure those 70 and older continue to have access to vaccines. Providers are working with Public Health to consolidate waitlists and reach out to the 70 and older population and schedule appointments through an outbound call center this week. As eligibility expands to additional priority groups, we simultaneously continue to ensure that other groups are not falling behind.

El Paso County Health