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Now in Arizona’s Gila County – located 90 minutes east of Phoenix – anyone over the age of 18 can get the vaccine.
“We had a hard time finding people in the 65 and over category to sign up for the vaccine,” Michael O’Driscoll, Gila’s director of health and emergency management, told CNN.
As a result, O’Driscoll said he asked the state in February to open up vaccines to the general population. The state officially approved his request on February 17.
The saturation of first-dose vaccines among eligible people has been so successful that as of Thursday, people who work in Gila are now also eligible.
Gila, which is a county of 54,000 people, is now in phase 2 of administering their vaccines at the end of February, according to O’Driscoll.
Officials attribute the county’s success in vaccines to an aggressive communication campaign to ensure that anyone eligible for the vaccine knows they are eligible.
“What we did was we set up the pandemic exactly like what we would do during our fire season,” O’Driscoll said. “We set up our Incident Command very similar to this one.”
The incident command structure sets up a community-wide response in which people from all different departments and communities help get residents vaccinated, O’Driscoll said.
The county has enlisted the help of health care organizations, hospitals and doctors. “We received such tremendous support from these partners that we had about six partners,” said O’Driscoll.
Cases are drastically declining in the state and county, O’Driscoll said, adding that life would change for the better in Gila because of their vaccination efforts.
“Today we only have two positive cases, where (like) about a month ago we were up to 60 a day,” he said.
Residents are still hesitant to get vaccinated, especially among the younger population, said Rhonda Mason, chief nurse at Cobre Regional Medical Center.
This, she said, “will challenge us to obtain collective immunity.”
Some who received the vaccine said they were grateful for the county’s efforts.
“It feels good,” Kevin Kane, 24, told CNN. “I feel like I can get on with my life when this thing is over.”
Paul Miller, who lives in Tucson but works in Gila, told CNN he is happy he can now receive the vaccine in the county.
He said he had not been able to visit his parents with his 2-year-old daughter for about a year.
“It’s one more step to see them.”
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