A public health order issued by state officials Wednesday aims to ensure updated COVID-19 vaccines remain widely available for Coloradans amid efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to limit access to certain groups.

The order, signed by Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment director Jill Hunsaker Ryan, criticizes the “confusion and uncertainty” caused by the Food and Drug Administration’s August 27 move to restrict access to the latest COVID-19 vaccines to those aged 65 or older or at higher risk of severe disease. The CDPHE order directs multiple state agencies to take steps to maintain broad access to vaccination, including by requiring insurers to cover the vaccines and instructing pharmacists to provide them without a doctor’s prescription.

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“I’m taking action to ensure that Coloradans who want to can easily and conveniently get the safe and effective updated COVID vaccine, along with the flu vaccine, this fall without having to go to a doctor first,” Governor Jared Polis said in a statement. “Starting this Friday, the COVID-19 vaccine should be available to those who choose at many local pharmacies.”

More than 4,500 Coloradans have been hospitalized due to COVID-19 over the last 11 months, CDPHE officials said.

Pursuant to the CDPHE directive, Colorado’s chief medical officer, Dr. Ned Calonge, issued a standing orderthat will “serve as a prescription for eligible Coloradans to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.” Those eligible include anyone between the ages of 5 and 64 who “desire their protection from COVID-19” and young children “whose parent or guardian desires their protection from COVID-19,” even if they do not belong to a high-risk group.

That significantly expands the eligibility limits set by the FDA’s Aug. 27 approval of four new vaccine formulations, which were directed by top Trump administration officials over the objections of agency scientists, The New York Times reported. The move comes amid a broad assault on the federal public health establishment led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has spent decades spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories about vaccines and other health issues.

Amid the unprecedented upheaval at federal health agencies — including the recent resignations of four senior officials at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the firing of the agency’s director — the states of California, Oregon and Washington announced this week that they will form a “health alliance” to make recommendations on vaccines. A group of northeastern states are considering a similar move.

Polis has faced criticism for his own history of opposition to vaccine mandates, and for voicing his support last year for Kennedy’s appointment to lead HHS. But he called the administration’s new vaccine limits “ridiculous.”

“These effective vaccines are available at many local pharmacies and supermarkets, and I encourage my fellow Coloradans to join me in getting protected,” Polis said. “Colorado is committed to empowering individuals to make choices to protect their own health and safety.”

The State Board of Pharmacy will convene an emergency meeting Friday to consider draft rules formalizing the requirements in CDPHE’s order.