Maricopa County opening COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to all adults

PHOENIX — Maricopa County’s health department is following the lead of the state and opening COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to all adults starting on Wednesday.

Residents who are at least 18 years old will be eligible to receive the Moderna or Johnson and Johnson vaccine, while those at least 16 years old can get the Pfizer vaccine.

The county announced the expanded eligibility on Monday afternoon following the state opening up the COVID-19 vaccine to the same age groups at state-run sites earlier in the morning.

Arizona Department of Health Services in March updated the COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan for state-run sites, switching from prioritizing essential workers and age groups in phases to just age groups while giving counties the opportunity to set their own priority groups.

Previously, only those 55 and older were eligible for a vaccine at a state-run site, with that same age group and essential workers only able to get the vaccine at sites in the county.

Those 16 years old and older were not eligible for the vaccine until May under the previous plan.

Just under 685,500 people have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose in Maricopa County, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services dashboard, with 435,467 being fully vaccinated against the virus.

More than 2.9 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered across the state, with 1,831,456 people (25.5% of the state’s population) having received at least one shot and 1,136,413 people fully vaccinated.

For details about COVID-19 vaccine availability at other locations in the state, including county-run sites, pharmacies and health clinics, the ADHS website has a vaccine-finder page.

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