Arizona general public expected to have access to COVID vaccine by March

PHOENIX – A day after becoming one of the first Arizonans to be vaccinated against COVID-19, the state health director said on Thursday that the general public could have access to vaccines by March.

But it will still be months before vaccines manage to tame the worst pandemic in modern history.

“It will probably be some time yet before we have enough to get back to… normal, maybe by summer,” said Dr Cara Christ. KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show.

Christ, who was among a small group of Arizona health professionals to get vaccinated on Wednesday, said the state would be able to deliver “tens of thousands” of doses per day at full capacity.

“You can get it from pharmacies, from your doctor by then,” she says. “It will be more abundant in the community.”

But first, the state distributes its first shipments to health workers, residents and staff of long-term care facilities, populations classified in phase 1A of the COVID-19 vaccination plan of the Department of Health of the Arizona. According to the plan’s estimates, the first phase includes around 375,000 people.

“We are working to have these health care providers screened and appointments made so they can receive their vaccine,” Christ said.

“We are also working to have our long-term care residents immediately vaccinated at our qualified nursing facilities.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the first to gain emergency approval for use in the United States, requires two injections spaced several weeks apart. The Moderna vaccine, which is expected to be approved in the coming days, also requires two injections.

A limited number of sites in Maricopa and Pima counties began shooting health workers on Thursday.

The vaccine rollout begins as several coronavirus parameters reach or approach the highest they have ever been in Arizona.

“We plan to have our front-line healthcare workers vaccinated, hopefully with their first vaccine, by early January,” Christ said.

There are two additional priority phases to pass, representing more than half of the state’s population, before the general public can get vaccinated.

“We anticipate that we will move to the next phases in January and that we will probably have our employees in Phase 1B in mid-January, beginning of February,” Christ said.

Phase 1B, which has about 800,000 people, includes adults with high-risk health problems living in communities and workers whose jobs are classified as essential. This includes teachers, law enforcement, emergency responders, and grocery store workers, among others.

“A large portion of the general public will be among these essential workers because that includes transportation, food workers, electrical and utility companies,” Christ said.

Phase 1C includes approximately 2.2 million adults with certain underlying medical conditions and 1.2 million Arizonans aged 65 or older.

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