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COVID In Colorado: 12,000+ Pfizer Vaccine Doses Administered Since Monday

December 18, 2020 / 8:21 PM MST / CBS Colorado

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DENVER (CBS4) - Colorado has distributed 46,790 doses of the Pfizer vaccine at 24 healthcare sites across the state. The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the drug one week ago.

Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center registered nurse Patricia Stamper looks at a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine before administering it to a health care worker at the hospital on December 16, 2020 in Aurora, Colorado. The Eastern Colorado VA Health Care System was chosen as one of 37 VA centers around the country to receive a shipment of the vaccine because of their ability to store the vaccine at extremely cold temperatures and vaccinate a large number of people. (Photo by Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)

Facilities have administered more than 12,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine since Monday. Colorado is currently in Phase 1A of the vaccine rollout, which includes the highest-risk healthcare workers.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment created a public dashboard to keep track of the vaccines as they are administered. Officials said the state was planning to receive 56,550 Pfizer doses on Friday, but Operation Warp Speed leadership reduced the state's allocation to 39,780 doses.

(credit: Denver Health)

The second shipment of the vaccine will be divided with 25,740 doses going to the CDC Pharmacy Partnership Program to support onsite vaccination of Colorado's skilled nursing facilities and 14,040 assigned to healthcare providers.

The state initially anticipated that each vial of the vaccine would include 5 doses. Once it arrived, officials learned the vials contained up to 6 doses. That equates to an anticipated 20% increase in doses to the state in Pfizer shipments.

"Currently, the CDC notifies the state on a week by week basis what we can expect for the upcoming week," CDPHE said in a statement to CBS4. "Operation Warp Speed is changing their approach so that we get the same allocation each week."