Arizona to receive fewer coronavirus vaccines than expected for next week
Dec 18, 2020, 3:37 PM | Updated: 6:45 pm
(Photo by Eva Marie Uzcategui Trinkl/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
(Photo by Eva Marie Uzcategui Trinkl/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
PHOENIX — Arizona will not receive its full allotment of COVID-19 vaccine doses from Pfizer for the upcoming week, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Health officials said in a press release Friday that the state expected to order 70,200 vaccine doses, but was only able to order 41,925.
The department contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for an explanation but are awaiting a response, according to the release.
Additionally, 119,400 Moderna doses were ordered by the state and are expected to arrive some time between Dec. 21 and Dec. 23. Maricopa County will receive 18,500 of the Moderna doses and Pima County will receive 17,000.
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The Moderna vaccine was authorized for emergency use by the FDA on Friday night.
In recent days, governors and health leaders in more than a dozen states have said the federal government has told them that next week’s shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be less than originally projected.
Little explanation was offered, leaving many state officials perplexed.
Arizona health officials on Friday reported 7,635 new coronavirus cases and 142 additional deaths, increasing the state’s documented totals to 442,671 COVID-19 infections and 7,819 fatalities.
It was the third consecutive day with at least 100 deaths reported. Until Thursday, there’d never been back-to-back days in triple digits.
The state’s largest hospital system, Banner Health, reported Friday that it needs refrigerated trucks to deal with the surge of deaths.
One truck is currently in use at Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix, while another truck is on standby at a Banner storage facility, Dr. Marjorie Bessel, Banner Health’s chief clinical officer, said.
The first U.S. doses of the coronavirus vaccine were administered Monday, and already this week, hundreds of thousands of people, mostly health care workers, have been vaccinated. The pace is expected to increase next week with the inclusion of the Moderna vaccine.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
