(Christophe Archambault / Polar photo via AP)
PHOENIX – The Arizona Department of Health Services changed its vaccination totals for coronavirus on Thursday, saying the changes are because the time has been taken to validate the data the department has received.
“The new, validated number will be the basis for continuous real-time reporting,” said ADHS Director Dr. Cara Christ in a blog post. “Meanwhile, finding duplicates in data solves problems and improves the real-time data we report on a daily basis.”
Christ noted that, unlike coronavirus cases and deaths, the two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine “require additional steps to match and deduplicate data.”
“As with the first time we completed matching our death records, the initial merging, matching, and cleaning of data usually results in a significant change in the number of identified and deleted (or added) records,” said Christ.
On Wednesday, the department said more than 119,000 coronavirus vaccines had been distributed in the state; However, they came back on Thursday and said that about 113,000 vaccines had been administered as a result of the data cleaning.
The state in general has been slow to accelerate the distribution of coronavirus vaccines since receiving the first shipments in mid-December.
Arizona counties are slowly moving from phase 1A to 1B of vaccine distribution. Phase 1A has prioritized health professionals and those who work and live in long-term care facilities.
Apache, Pinal, and Gila counties have begun to vaccinate those in 1B, including teachers, adults 75 and older, key workers, and adults with high-risk conditions in municipal settings.
Maricopa County said Wednesday it would enter Phase 1B next week.
The advent of the vaccine and acceleration of the distribution process comes as the state continues to reach new pandemic levels.
On Thursday, state health officials reported 9,913 new cases of coronavirus and a record 297 additional deaths, bringing the states’ documented totals to 584,593 COVID-19 infections and 9,741 fatalities.