(Photo from Twitter / @ CVSHealth)
PHOENIX – The panel of health experts making Arizona’s COVID-19 vaccination priority recommendations moved adults 75 and older to a higher position on Monday.
The 75-year-old or older group is now part of a new classification, Prioritized 1B, which also includes teachers, child caregivers and law enforcement occupations, according to the latest allocation recommendations from the Vaccine and Antiviral Prioritization Advisory Committee. from Arizona.
It is estimated that 530,000 Arizonans are 75 years of age or older, a demographic group that faces a high risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from the coronavirus. The reprioration is expected to help reduce the burden on Arizona hospitals, which are suffering from the burden of registration numbers for patients with COVID-19.
“As you look at prioritization, what we’re trying to do is to ensure that those who have the most serious outcomes, such as hospitalizations and death, are prioritized early to receive the vaccine, which will protect people from potentially dying,” Arizona Department of Health Services, Dr. Cara Christ, said KTAR News 92.3 FM on Tuesday.
The prioritized 1B is behind only 1A at the state level, which now has four layers of priority populations. The change does not affect residents of long-term care facilities, which are part of phase 1A and have already started receiving vaccines.
Christ said the process for informing people in the new classification that they are eligible varies by county and is still being worked out.
“We will make announcements as we get more information on how to register, but we are looking at several different mechanisms,” she said.
“We are working with counties to identify whether they will have mass vaccination sites, whether they can go to pharmacies, whether we will have mobile vaccination clinics that can go to people’s homes.”
Vaccination for Prioritized 1B is expected to start in mid-January, although it may start earlier in some counties, said Christ.
Christ said he expects the last priority phases to be completed by February or March, with Phase 2, the general population, starting in March or April.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control, adults 75 and older who contract COVID-19 are eight times more likely to be hospitalized and 220 times more likely to die than those aged 18-29.
In the previous version of the plan, which was updated on December 14, the approximately 1.2 million adults aged 65 and over in the state were prioritized in phase 1C, which was then the third of the three priority groups. There was no separate category for people aged 75 and over.
The Vaccine and Antiviral Priority Advisory Committee meets regularly to make recommendations on how to fairly distribute the COVID-19 vaccine in Arizona while supplies are limited.
The committee is made up of state, local and tribal experts, including representatives from the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Local health officials or tribal authorities can modify the recommendations to meet your needs.
Monday’s update is in line with the new recommendations from the CDC’s Immunization Practices Advisory Committee, said Christ.
Vaccine distribution began in Arizona two weeks ago for people in phase 1A, which includes first-rate health care staff, emergency medical professionals and residents and staff at long-term care facilities.
Christ said that nearly 40,000 injections have been delivered so far in Arizona.
Federal authorities approved the emergency use authorization for two vaccines, developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, with efficacy rates above 90%. Both require two injections several weeks apart for full effectiveness.
Moderna vaccines are more easily distributed in several locations because they can be stored in regular freezers.
Pfizer vaccines, which are currently being administered at five locations in the Phoenix metropolitan area, must be kept at extremely low temperatures in specially designed freezers.
Ali Vetnar of KTAR News 92.3 FM contributed to this report.