DENVER — Health leaders are encouraging everyone eligible in Colorado to get a COVID-19 booster, particularly if they plan on gathering for the holidays.
“It is an overwhelming process,” said self-proclaimed vaccine whisperer, Sarah Gomez-Marwitz.
Marwitz has been helping Coloradans find COVID-19 vaccines since they first became available.
"I just feel like it was a really important thing people needed help with because finding an appointment was so difficult and, in the very beginning, we’re talking about a demographic that was not familiar stereotypically with the technology that was available,” Marwitz said.
Especially now as Colorado experiences some of its highest COVID rates since 2020.
“This year we're all looking forward, thinking we're going to gather for Christmas, but now we're seeing this new wave of case numbers going up and people are starting to get concerned,” Marwitz said.
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Which is why state health officials are encouraging anyone who hasn't received a COVID shot in the last six months to get a booster. Making an appointment now is much more difficult.
"So what we’re seeing is appointments booking further out. We're looking at the end of November; probably in the next day or two, we're only going to see appointments available in December,” Marwitz said.
Vaccination rates in Colorado are slowly climbing. Nearly 68% of Colorado’s eligible population has at least one dose of a COVID vaccine.
That's 80% of adults in Colorado and 92% of people age 65 and up. More than 651,000 people in our state have gotten an additional shot or booster dose, according to state data.
Marwitz is surprised the process is still this difficult. But is not surprised people still need her help finding appointments.
"The best places to look like right for a vaccine are the mobile vax buses, the Colorado mass vax website, and even the smaller pharmacies. They all either take walk-up or a lot of the smaller pharmacies have appointments for this weekend,” Marwitz said.
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