Richard Roth is 77 and is looking forward to the day when he and his wife, Carol, 68, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, can at least make an appointment to be vaccinated to protect themselves from COVID-19.

But when seeking information this week about when vaccinations will be available to people 70 and older, he’s only become frustrated.

“I can’t get any information. I tried to call the San Juan Basin Public Health, and of course, you can’t get a hold of the human being there,” Roth said in a telephone interview. “My wife has called her doctor, and she can’t get a phone call returned. I go to the VA, and I have called the VA and they don’t know anything about it.”

Claire Ninde, SJBPH spokeswoman, said the agency is still prioritizing the 1A population for La Plata County’s supply of COVID-19 vaccinations from the state of Colorado.

Under the state’s COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution plan, the 1A population includes residents and staff members of long-term care facilities and people who have direct contact with COVID-19 patients for 15 minutes or more in a 24-hour period.

Ninde said SJBPH anticipates finishing vaccinating the 1A population on Jan. 15.

After 1A populations are inoculated, vaccinations for the 1B population, which includes people 70 and older, will begin.

Other groups in the 1B population for vaccine distribution are moderate-risk health care workers, first responders, front-line essential workers, essential local and state government employees, and funeral service providers.

Essential workers include people in the fields of education, food and agriculture, manufacturing, journalism, U.S. Postal Service, public transit, grocery, public health front-line workers, essential human services workers and people experiencing homelessness.

SJBPH has created a webpage, Sign-Up for SJBPH Vaccination Alerts, to receive information about vaccinations and to be contacted when people are eligible to receive a vaccination. The alert sign-up is available in English and Spanish.

When vaccines are more widely available, Ninde said the health department will enlist hospitals, health systems, pharmacies, clinics and licensed medical providers to provide vaccinations. She said most people will eventually get vaccinated from one of those facilities after making an appointment.

More information about distribution of vaccinations for 1B populations will come after the 1A population is completed, Ninde said.

Drive-thru clinics are under consideration as part of an overall vaccine distribution effort in La Plata County, but final logistical details have not yet been worked out, Ninde said.

“SJBPH does not receive advance notice of vaccine availability more than a few days out,” she said in an email.

The number of doses SJBPH receives is dependent on state allocation policy, shipments from the federal and state governments, and the amount of vaccines being produced at any one time by vaccine manufacturers, Ninde said.

In a news conference Wednesday with Gov. Jared Polis, Jill Hunsaker Ryan, executive director of Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said: “By the end of February, we expect to vaccinate anyone over age 70 who wants it. We will be vaccinating essential workers like teachers in early March. This timeline is, of course, dependent on receiving a steady supply of vaccine doses from the federal government.”

Under Colorado’s COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Plan, after 1B populations are vaccinated, now planned for completion at the end of February, the state will begin concentrating on the Phase 2 population for vaccinations in spring.

The Phase 2 population includes higher-risk individuals with health conditions, people age 60 to 69, people 16 to 59 with obesity, diabetes, chronic lung disease, significant heart disease, chronic kidney disease, cancer or compromised immune systems.

Also in the Phase 2 population are other local government essential workers not covered in phases 1A or 1B and adults who were given a placebo during COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials.

Phase 2 populations are scheduled to be vaccinated in spring.

In summer, the vaccine is expected to be available to anyone in the Phase 3 population, which is anyone age 16 to 59.

More information about the state’s distribution timeline and other information about the vaccine is on SJPBH’s vaccine page at https://sjbpublichealth.org/covid-19-vaccine/.

Ninde estimated “it will take months” for everyone who wants the COVID-19 vaccine to receive it.

When people are able to schedule a vaccine, they will be provided for free, but people should bring their insurance information to their appointment in case the provider intends to bill insurance, Ninde said.

Seventy-seven-year-old Roth said he has no problem with the first vaccinations being allocated to nursing homes and other congregate living facilities, but he wishes more information was available to people like him 70 and older and his ailing 68-year-old wife suffering from MS.

“When the program does get going, how do we know it’s going? And who do we call? And will someone actually answer the damn phone?” he said.

parmijo@durangoherald.com