Vaccinated Coloradans can return to life as normal as state “turns the page” on COVID-19, Polis says

Healthy Coloradans who are up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccines can return to life as normal as the state prepares for the “next chapter” in the pandemic, Gov. Jared Polis said Friday.

Polis and other state health officials unveiled a four-point “roadmap” to prepare for any future surges of the virus, including preparing hospitals to scale up in case of future spikes in infection, monitoring conditions through continued surveillance, building up the health care workforce and asking the federal government to take steps that would help states be prepared.

State officials gave few details about how the roadmap would be implemented, but Scott Bookman, Colorado’s COVID-19 incident commander, said people will eventually go to their normal health care providers, rather than a state-run site, for testing, vaccination or treatment.

More than 90% of Coloradans are believed to have at least some immunity to the virus at this point, either through vaccination or prior infection, and the risk of severe illness or death is dramatically reduced for people who are fully vaccinated, Polis said. He encouraged eligible people who aren’t vaccinated to get the shots and continue taking precautions, while acknowledging many stopped months ago.

“Live your life. Don’t feel guilty. You only live once,” he said. “You’ve done your part, Colorado.”

Last summer I declared an end to the public health emergency because we had the tools we needed and the systems in place, to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe and avoid overcrowding our hospitals. But today I’m here to say that it’s time for us to turn the page. pic.twitter.com/WpcymSvRm8

— Governor Jared Polis (@GovofCO) February 25, 2022

The state’s COVID-19 modeling team has projected that cases and hospitalizations will continue to decline through March, and remain low through June. This week, hospitalizations fell to levels last seen in early August, and the state hit its goal of having fewer than 5% of COVID-19 tests come back positive for the first time since July.

The longer-term picture is less clear, though. Scientists don’t yet know how quickly immunity to the omicron variant will wane, and it’s possible other variants may evolve that are even better at evading the body’s defenses.

So far, it doesn’t appear that BA.2 will be that variant. While it appears to be more contagious than omicron, reinfections in people who’ve survived omicron appear relatively rare, and there’s no sign vaccine effectiveness has eroded any further.

Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is expected to significantly loosen recommendations for when Americans should wear masks indoors.

Under the current CDC guidance, the vast majority of the country is considered to have “substantial” or “high” transmission, and masks are recommended in indoor public places. Nearly all Colorado counties still are above the threshold at which the CDC recommended masks, except Clear Creek, Dolores, Hinsdale, Jackson, Kiowa and Mineral.