Colorado Health Department To Discontinue COVID-19 Vaccine Hotline At Year's End

By Sara Wilson, Colorado Newsline

December 29, 2022

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is winding down its operation of the state’s COVID-19 vaccine hotline and will soon direct callers to a national phone number.

Live assistance on the state’s vaccine hotline will end on Dec. 31. Instead, people will be directed to a hotline operated by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to get vaccine information or schedule an appointment by phone.

"Since Colorado’s hotline was activated in January 2021, the call center has received more than 290,000 calls and scheduled nearly 14,000 vaccine appointments," according to CDPHE. That call volume has seen a significant decrease in recent months.

“The timing is right to transition this call center to other available resources, such as the federal vaccine hotline, with decreased call volumes over recent months and the existence of similar resources at the national level,” Diana Herrero, the deputy director of the Division of Disease Control and Public Health Response, said in a statement.

People who need information about COVID-19 vaccines can call the CDC hotline for free at 1-800-232-0233. They can also get information about where to schedule a vaccine appointment at CDPHE’s website.

Additionally, CDPHE amended how it displays public data to better reflect the state of COVID-19 in Colorado. On Wednesday, the department archived a chart that showed current hospitalizations by vaccination status, which only took into account whether a patient received their original vaccine series, not whether they took all recommended doses and boosters. That could give an inaccurate picture of the relationship between hospitalization and vaccine history.

"A more descriptive and accurate data visualization that accounts for booster rates among hospitalized patients will still be available on CDPHE’s data dashboard," the agency said.

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