PHOENIX – Another 750,000 Arizona people will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine next week, state health leaders said Wednesday.
Starting Tuesday, Jan. 19, at 9 a.m., Arizona residents 65 and older will be allowed to make an appointment to receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Previously, eligibility was open to those 75 years of age or older, as well as front-line workers, law enforcement, faculty, and health workers.
Earlier Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that states open vaccine distribution to those over 65 years of age.
This week, Glendale State Farm was transformed into a 24/7 vaccination site. It also remains open as a test site for COVID-19. Appointments can be booked online here or by calling COVID-19 (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, getting the vaccine is critical.
“I would like to get it done as soon as possible,” he said, adding that he has persistent health problems from the 9/11 attacks.
“There were a lot of particles in the air and they got into my lungs, I have COPD, emphysema,” he said.
Like other people who tried to make an appointment on Monday this week, it has not been an easy process. He struggled to make an appointment online and waited almost an hour on hold after calling a hotline to reach someone who could help him with the schedule.
The good news, however, with Wednesday’s update lowering the eligibility age, Frank should be allowed to make an appointment as early as next week.
On Monday, CDC and Operation Warp Speed health officials urged states to begin vaccinating those over 65 immediately.
“In some states, the heavy micromanagement of this process has prevented vaccines from reaching a wider swath of the vulnerable population more quickly,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar II.
To get additional incentives, states will now compete with each other for a greater supply of the vaccine.
“We will assign them based on the pace of administration according to state reports,” Azar II said.
Then there’s this task: distributing 100 million doses to Americans in 30 days.
Officials from the National Drug Chain Association said the federal government has activated the federal pharmacy collaboration program to provide vaccines to retail pharmacies for Phase 1B and beyond. The program will leverage more than 40,000 pharmacies across the country to distribute and inject 100 million vaccines in a month.
These 40,000 sites should make 83 vaccines a day over a 12-hour period, with an average of about 7 vaccines per hour.