PHOENIX – Another 750,000 Arizonans will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine next week, health leaders said Wednesday.
Starting Tuesday, January 19 at 9 a.m., Arizonans 65 and older may make an appointment to receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Previously, people over 75, front-line workers, law enforcement, teachers, and health workers were eligible.
Earlier Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended giving open vaccination distribution to people over 65.
This week, State Farm Stadium in Glendale was turned into a 24/7 vaccination site. It also remains open as a COVID-19 testing 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 critical.
“I’d like to have it as soon as possible,” he said, adding that he has ongoing health problems from the 9/11 attacks.
“There were a lot of particles in the air and got into my lungs, I have COPD, emphysema,” he said.
Like other people trying to book an appointment on Monday of this week, it was not an easy process. He struggled to book an appointment online and was on hold for almost an hour after calling a hotline to reach someone who could help him schedule.
The good news is that now with Wednesday’s update, Frank should have lowered the eligibility age to book an appointment for next week.
On Monday, the CDC and Operation Warp Speed health officials urged states to immediately vaccinate those 65 and older.
“In some states, brutal micromanagement of this process has allowed vaccines to reach a wider segment of the vulnerable population more quickly,” said Alex Azar II, secretary of Health and Human Services.
For additional incentives, states will now compete with each other for a larger supply of the vaccine.
“We will allocate them based on the pace of administration as reported by the states,” said Azar II.
Then there’s this task: distribute 100 million doses to Americans in 30 days.
Officials from the National Association of Chain Drug Stores said the federal government has triggered the federal pharmacy collaboration program to deliver vaccines to retail pharmacies for Phase 1B and beyond. The program will deploy more than 40,000 pharmacies across the country to distribute and inject 100 million vaccines in a month.
Those 40,000 sites would have to do 83 vaccinations a day over a 12-hour period, an average of about 7 vaccinations per hour.