Should Summit County offer incentives to residents as a way to push vaccination efforts, and if so, what would that look like?
The Board of Health contemplated that question at its meeting Tuesday, April 27. After Public Health Director Amy Wineland concluded her presentation on the county’s vaccination efforts, Summit County Commissioner Elisabeth Lawrence suggested offering incentives as a way to encourage residents to get vaccinated.
During Wineland’s presentation, she reported that Summit County is third in the state for getting its population immunized with one or more doses. Currently, 49.6% of Summit County’s residents are fully vaccinated, with 71.5% vaccinated with at least one dose. While these numbers look promising, Lawrence said she was worried about the percentage of vaccinated residents in the 20-29 age group.
Summit County is expecting another big week for vaccine distribution, and officials are working on ways to make the process more efficient and mitigate any impacts on the community.
Last week, the county hosted its first “megapod” at the bus barn in Frisco, one of Summit County’s largest vaccine distribution events to date with more than 1,200 doses administered to community members. But with traffic backed up onto Colorado Highway 9 from residents waiting to get their shots, officials are hoping to implement some new measures to reduce congestion and make things run a little more smoothly.
“We do know that we learned tons, especially with regard to traffic control,” Summit County Public Health Director Amy Wineland said during the Board of Health meeting Tuesday afternoon. “And we have already had several meetings, debriefings, hotwashes, etc., to identify where we can make improvements and make sure that is going to have the least amount of impact as possible on our c