Colorado COVID Deaths: Around 5 Percent Fully Vaccinated

On December 14, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment confirmed that more than 10,000 people in the state had died of COVID-19, and the tragic count keeps growing. The current CDPHE total, updated on December 16, is 10,065, up from 10,018 two days earlier. Nationally, COVID casualties have surpassed 800,000.

How many of the Colorado victims were fully vaccinated? Officials aren’t absolutely certain, given that the numbers come in at different times from a slew of agencies across the state and are constantly in flux. But according to Brian Spencer, spokesperson for the Colorado State Joint Information Center, which is coordinating communication about the virus, as of December 14, the state “confirmed that 551 fully vaccinated individuals have died in Colorado due to COVID-19.”

Spencer adds: “Confirming vaccination status takes significant time because we must wait for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to code Colorado deaths, and then we must match that death to our positive case and immunization databases. We have received codes for approximately 80 percent of the 10,018 deaths due to COVID, so it’s likely the true number is slightly higher.”

The 551 deaths represent just over 5 percent of Colorado’s total tally, and plenty involve extenuating circumstances. As Governor Jared Polis has pointed out at several press conferences about the fight against COVID-19, many of the fully vaccinated individuals who’ve been hospitalized or died from the disease were elderly and had pre-existing medical conditions that increased their risk.

Spencer underscores this point. “Vaccinated people are 10.6 less likely to die from COVID than vaccinated individuals, and individuals who are vaccinated and have received a booster are 47.5 times less likely to be hospitalized than unvaccinated individuals,” he says. “We know the vaccine provides significant protection against serious illness and death, and it’s important that all eligible Coloradans get a booster shot, because we know the vaccine protection can wane over time.”

Conor Cahill, Polis’s press secretary, offers additional context. “This pandemic has caused pain and challenges for families and kids across our state – every death is a tragedy and a loved one who isn’t spending time and the holidays with loved ones,” he says. “Thankfully, Colorado ranks tenth lowest per capita among all fifty states for deaths caused by this pandemic, but that is little consolation to those who have suffered loss.”

Cahill adds: “If we did not have over 70 percent of adults vaccinated when the Delta wave began hitting our state and region this fall, the impacts of the deadly variant would have been far more devastating, and our health-care system would have been destroyed. This is largely a pandemic of the unvaccinated, and with the arrival of the contagious Omicron variant, the unvaccinated are at extremely high risk of hospitalization from COVID. Misinformation and disinformation have preyed on far too many Coloradans, making them unnecessarily the victims of COVID’s most severe outcomes even though it was easily prevented.”