PHOENIX – Another 750,000 Arizonans will become eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine next week, state health leaders said Wednesday.
Starting Tuesday, January 19, at 9 a.m., Arizonans aged 65 and over will be allowed to make an appointment to receive their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Previously, eligibility was open to those aged 75 and over, as well as front-line workers, law enforcement, teachers and health workers.
Earlier Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that states open the vaccine distribution to those 65 and older.
This week, Glendale State Farm Stadium was transformed into a 24/7 vaccination site. It also remains open as a COVID-19 test site. Appointments can be booked online here or by calling the COVID-19 hotline (1-844-542-8201) or Arizona 211.
For Frank Luisi, 78, a former stockbroker who worked in New York City and was there on September 11, 2001, receiving the vaccine is essential.
“I would like to get it as soon as possible,” he said, adding that he has had persistent health problems since the 9/11 attacks.
“There were a lot of particles in the air and they went into my lungs, I have COPD, emphysema,” he said.
Like other people who tried to make an appointment Monday this week, it was not an easy process. He struggled to make an appointment online and waited almost an hour to wait after calling a phone line to reach someone who could help him with the appointment.
The good news, however, is that with Wednesday’s update, which reduces the eligibility age, Frank will be allowed to make an appointment as early as next week.
On Monday, the CDC and health officials with Operation Warp Speed called on states to immediately begin vaccinating people 65 and older.
“In some states, the difficult micromanagement of this process has prevented vaccines from reaching a wider area of the vulnerable population faster,” said Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar II.
For additional incentives, states will now compete against each other for a larger amount of vaccine.
“We will allocate them based on the pace of administration, as reported by the states,” said Azar II.
Then there is this task: distributing 100 million doses to Americans in 30 days.
Officials from the National Association of Chain Drug Stores said the federal government has activated the federal pharmacy’s partnership program to provide vaccines to retail pharmacies for Phase 1B and beyond. The program will leverage more than 40,000 pharmacies across the country to distribute and inject 100 million vaccines in a month.
These 40,000 locations should have 83 vaccinations per day over a 12-hour period, averaging about 7 vaccinations per hour.