(Twitter photo / @ CVSHealth)
PHOENIX – The panel of health experts recommending Arizona’s COVID-19 vaccination priority moved adults 75 and older to a higher position Monday.
The 75-year-old group is now part of a new classification, Prioritized 1B, which also includes teachers, child caregivers and law enforcement professions, according to the latest Arizona Vaccine and Antiviral Prioritization Advisory Committee allocation recommendations.
An estimated 530,000 Arizonans are 75 years of age and older, a demographic that is at increased risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from the coronavirus. The reprioritisation is expected to help reduce the burden on Arizona hospitals, which are collapsing under the weight of the record number of COVID-19 patients.
“When you look at the prioritization, we’re trying to make sure that those with the most serious consequences, such as hospitalizations and death, are prioritized early to get the vaccine, a vaccine that’s going to protect people from potential death,” said Dr. Cara Christ, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services KTAR News 92.3 FM on Tuesday.
Priority 1B is behind only 1A in the state plan, which now has four levels of priority populations. The change will not affect residents of long-term care facilities, which are part of Phase 1A and have already started receiving vaccines.
Christ said the process of letting people know they qualify in the new classification will vary by province and is still under development.
“We’ll make announcements when we get more information on how to register, but we’re looking at many different mechanisms,” she said.
“We are working with the provinces to determine whether they will have massive vaccination sites, whether they can go to the pharmacy, whether we will have mobile vaccination clinics that can come to people’s homes.”
Vaccinations for Prioritized 1B are expected to begin in mid to late January, although it may begin earlier in some countries, Christ said.
Christ said she expects the final priority stages to be completed in February or March, with stage 2, the general population, starting in March or April.
According to the U.S. Centers of 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 the age of 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 were given priority in Phase 1C, which was then the third of three priority groups. There was no separate category for people aged 75 and over.
The Vaccine and Antiviral Priorities Advisory Committee meets regularly to make recommendations on how to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine fairly 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 adapt the recommendations to their needs.
Monday’s update is in line with new recommendations from the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Christ said.
Vaccine distribution began two weeks ago in Arizona for people in Phase 1A, including primary care workers, medical workers, and residents and staff in long-term care facilities.
Christ said nearly 40,000 shots have been fired in Arizona so far.
Federal officials have approved emergency use consent for two vaccines, developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, with efficacy rates greater than 90%. Both require two shots several weeks apart for full effectiveness.
The Moderna vaccines are more easily distributed across multiple locations because they can be stored in regular freezers.
The Pfizer vaccines, which are currently given at five locations on the Phoenix subway, must be stored at extremely low temperatures in specially designed freezers.
Ali Vetnar from KTAR News 92.3 FM contributed to this report.