Dr. Cara Cristo, right, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, receives the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19 at the State Department of the Arizona Department of Health Services from Nurse Machrina Leach, Wednesday , December 16, 2020, in Phoenix. (AP Photo / Ross D. Franklin)
PHOENIX – While Arizona is moving ahead with plans to expand the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, key state officials are concerned about running out of doses.
“We had a conversation yesterday that I thought we wouldn’t have anytime soon,” said Governor Doug Ducey The Mike Broomhead KTAR News 92.3 FM Show On thursday.
“My team was concerned about the possibility of running out of vaccines.”
Ducey said the state, which opened a high-capacity 24-hour vaccination facility at State Farm Stadium in Glendale this week, is receiving vaccines “as fast as they come in” from the federal government.
“We don’t want to run out of vaccines, but I’m putting a lot of pressure on the administration and the private sector to bring us more vaccines to the state,” he said.
Dr. Cara Christ, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, also raised concerns about supplies on Thursday.
“We asked our federal partners for an additional vaccine because we are very satisfied with the demand and the number of Arizonans who want to be vaccinated,” she said. The Mike Broomhead Show.
Christ said the 42,000 doses allocated to the State Farm Stadium site are all spoken for four days after registration opens.
“We are planning to use all of this and more this week and get the next weekly allocation next week,” she said. “We have a lot of demand, so we are trying to make sure that everyone who makes an appointment gets the vaccine here at State Farm Stadium.”
The Glendale stadium site is fully booked until January and has not yet started accepting reservations for February.
But on Thursday, the state announced plans to open a second mass vaccination site on February 1, this one at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. However, places may be limited when registration starts at 9am on Tuesday.
“The number of consultations available will depend entirely on the number of doses we will receive,” said Christ. “So we are still working to see what these projections look like.”
Demand will only increase after the state said it was reducing the current age limit for eligibility by 10 years to 65.
This update was made after federal authorities changed their recommendations to prioritize shots while supply is limited.
According to state officials, 85% of Arizonans who died of COVID-19 and more than half who were hospitalized were 65 or older.
Most Arizona counties, including Maricopa, are in the priority segment of phase 1B. This group initially consisted of educators, child caregivers, police officers and adults aged 75 and over.
The state’s age cut will be reduced to 65 on Tuesday, adding about 750,000 Arizonans to the eligible segment.
Anyone in Arizona in priority phase 1B or phase 1A is eligible for a chance at a state-run facility.
“Remember that not every county is in Phase 1B in Arizona,” said Christ. “And given the limited resources, not every county may be able to prioritize in the same way as the state, so it’s really on a county by county basis.”
In addition to the logistical complexity of the launch, the two vaccines that received emergency use authorization in the United States require two doses at intervals of several weeks.
When Maricopa County entered phase 1B this week, appointments at the five county-run locations were quickly canceled because many vacancies were already occupied by people in phase 1A receiving their second attempts.
Maricopa County said on Thursday it was not reducing the cut-off age to below 75 because of the limited supply.
Availability may vary as conditions change, so anyone who has failed to find an appointment should check in regularly. As of Thursday afternoon, the county registration page showed limited availability at two locations: Arizona State Fairgrounds and Banner Sun City West.
When supplies are more plentiful, plans provide for vaccines to be readily available at pharmacies, doctors’ offices, emergency call centers and other options, such as flu shots.
The Arizona Department of Health has a vaccine location page with a state map of active and pending locations and links to registration sites.