COVID-19 booster will soon arrive in Colorado

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Colorado Springs residents will soon have access to a new COVID-19 booster. According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the latest batches of vaccines should be arriving within the next few weeks. State health leaders said this comes at a perfect time.

"Kids are back in school and we start to see that mixing again, where we start to see a lot of increase in respiratory viruses particularly as we go into the fall," said Scott Bookman, Senior Director of Public Health Readiness and Response for the CDPHE.

On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave both Pfizer and Moderna the green light to distribute the updated COVID boosters. 

"We are really excited that this updated COVID shot is here, it's an opportunity for us to get individual protection and also to be able to protect our friends and our families," added Bookman.

Bookman said this third COVID-19 booster will be available for all those people who are older than five years old.

"We are in a different phase and we have moved out of pandemic emergency response and into moving covid treatment, covid vaccine into our traditional health care system," said Bookman.

Those residents who are insured should be covered by their insurance, according to the CDPHE; however, people who are not insured will have to go through selective federal programs to get the shot at no cost.

Starting in September, the state will also be alerting Colorado residents via text message reminding them to get their COVID-19 boosters. 

"Viruses evolve and it is important that our vaccines evolve with it and as we continue to learn more and more about COVID and understand it better we start to understand what that cadence of booster shots is going to be," said Bookman. Health experts also suggest people stay up to date with their flu shots as we head into flu season.

For more information on COVID-19 vaccines in Colorado, click here.