DENVER | One day before Aurora Public Schools’ deadline for employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19, 96% of staff are fully vaccinated, Superintendent Rico Munn said.
Munn joined Gov. Jared Polis’ Wednesday afternoon news conference discussing the state’s COVID-19 response.
APS serves “a very diverse and complex community,” Munn said, and after the last school year it became clear that the district needed to do everything it could to preserve in-person learning.
To that end, the district announced that once one of the COVID-19 vaccines was fully approved by the FDA, all district employees would be required to get vaccinated unless they had a valid exemption.
The Pfizer vaccine was fully approved in late August, and APS employees were given until Oct. 7 to be vaccinated. The program appears to be a significant success, Munn said.
“We are incredibly grateful to our staff for stepping up and responding to this need for our students to be protected and have protection in our classrooms,” he said.
The district has also partnered with local health departments to offer numerous vaccine clinics for the Aurora community, and it is now partnering with the CDPHE to provide more testing opportunities for students.
At the conference, Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera also encouraged Coloradans who are eligible to get a booster shot. Primavera, a cancer survivor in her 70s, recently got her booster and said it was painless and easy.
Booster shots are recommended for people who received the Pfizer vaccine at least six months ago and are 65 years or older or are in a high risk category for the virus, Polis said. Boosters are also recommended for people who received either a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine and have a weakened immune system.
Currently, 77% of eligible Coloradans are fully vaccinated. As of today Polis said that there are 922 people hospitalized with the virus, the highest number since January. Of those, 710 are not vaccinated.
Polis once again urged those who are not yet vaccinated to get their shot.
“This pandemic won’t end without you,” he said.