Colorado governor considering changing state definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ to include boosters

Colorado governor Jared Polis told NBC during a Meet the Press interview on Sunday that the definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ against COVID-19 will likely change soon to include booster shots.

Polis’ announcement comes during a nationwide surge of COVID-19 cases as the omicron variant spreads. Currently, for Coloradans to be considered fully vaccinated they must have had two shots of either Moderna or Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

However, with death and infection rates steadily rising, Polis says Colorado amending its official definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ to include booster shots is “certainly where it’s headed.”

Further, Polis told NBC he wants people to stop referring to the third shot as a booster, “It really is a third dose vaccine,” Polis said. “And every piece of data that we’re seeing … shows that that’s the case.” He added: “People who have gotten those three doses in our Colorado data, which is similar to the national data, are 47 times less likely to die than people that are unvaccinated. It essentially negates the risk.”

So far, five positive omicron cases have been identified in Colorado. The variant has also been detected in wastewater systems in several counties in Colorado.