ARCHIVE – In this archive photo of January 18, 2021, a vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 is prepared at a vaccination center in the 3rd district in Paris. (AP Photo / Francois Mori, Archive)
PHOENIX – The Arizona Department of Health Services released new details on climate-related delays in COVID-19 vaccine shipments on Wednesday.
All shipments of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna from the state were delayed this week, but the impact on appointments for the next few days will vary by location, the department said in a press release.
All locations in Maricopa and Pima municipalities that use the Pfizer vaccine have sufficient doses to maintain operations, but the situation remains fluid in areas where the Modern vaccine is used, according to the statement.
Residents with services in rural municipalities should consult local authorities about availability, according to the note.
A senior Banner Health official said the state’s largest hospital system said it had sufficient supplies for its vaccine outlay in Maricopa, Pinal and Coconino counties to cover this week’s consultations.
However, Clinical Director Dr. Marjorie Bessell said that Banner is “slightly short” in Gila County and faces potentially greater problems in Pima County. She said Banner had enough vaccine for appointments on Wednesdays and Thursdays in Pima County, but vaccinations from Friday to Sunday “are at risk if we don’t get supplies.”
Bessell said the shipment of supplies needed to give vaccines, such as syringes and needles, was also delayed by winter storms.
The state has allocated 176,600 doses for delivery this week, according to the disclosure: 85,800 Pfizer vaccines and 90,800 Modern vaccines. According to the ADHS COVID-19 panel, 1,291,053 of the 1,395,300 doses allocated from the state were administered on Wednesday morning.
Shipments of both types scheduled to leave on Monday were not sent because of winter storms in much of the country, according to the statement. Some shipments sent over the weekend are expected to arrive late.
Estimated arrival times vary by location.
On Tuesday night, the state health department revealed for the first time that shipments were delayed because of the weather and that some local health departments had to cancel appointments.
Here was Tuesday’s full statement:
The extreme winter that affects much of the rest of the country has delayed this week’s delivery of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Arizona. Because of these weather-related delays, some local health departments told ADHS that they had to cancel appointments within the next two days. At this time, it appears that sufficient doses of Pfizer are available for the state’s vaccination sites and other sites that administer Pfizer to maintain operations without interruption.
Here is Wednesday’s full follow-up press release:
All of Arizona’s allocations for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are delayed due to the extreme weather that affects much of the rest of the country, but that does not mean that Arizonans expecting vaccination in the coming days will necessarily see their appointments canceled.
All locations in Maricopa and Pima counties that administer the Pfizer vaccine currently have sufficient supplies to maintain operations.
For other sites, the situation is fluid and will depend on each supplier’s current supply. ADHS is in close contact with our federal and local partners to monitor the situation, which continues to develop.
There are currently sufficient doses of Pfizer available for all locations, including state PODs in Maricopa County, to maintain operations without interruption. These PODs handle a large proportion of vaccinations in Maricopa and Pima counties, which are positioned to work with the stringent storage requirements and large batch sizes of the Pfizer vaccine.
Rural counties and some smaller suppliers in Pima and Maricopa counties administer the Modern vaccine, which has less stringent storage requirements.
The federal government has allocated Arizona 85,800 doses of Pfizer and 90,800 doses of Moderna for a total allocation of 176,600 doses that are expected to be delivered across the state this week.
Counties are the local vaccine allocators throughout Arizona, and specific information about any nomination impacts in each local jurisdiction would come from each county. For those who live in rural Arizona or have appointments for the first or second dose at providers who administer the Modern vaccine, we recommend checking with your county’s health department or the provider in question.
Because shipment notifications go directly to the provider’s websites, ADHS has no specific information on when each provider can expect to receive the allocated vaccine doses this week. Our federal partners reported that Moderna vaccines were not shipped on Monday due to the weather, although weekend shipments of Moderna for delivery on Monday are delivered today. Doses of the Pfizer vaccine were also not sent on Monday, although federal partners have reported that shipments sent over the weekend for delivery on Monday or Tuesday are yet to be delivered.
For more information on vaccine availability across the state, the ADHS website has a vaccine location page with a map of locations and registration information.