FEMA vaccine site in Pima County nixed, focus shifts to mobile sites

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A plan to establish a large federally supported mass vaccination site in metro Tucson is being shelved and Pima County instead is now asking for it in mobile form.

Following weeks of discussions, state and federal officials did not come to terms on an agreement for authorizing and running the proposed mass vaccination site, officials said Tuesday.

The county is now pivoting to ask the Federal Emergency Management Agency for mobile sites capable of providing about 300 shots daily to reach populations that could use help getting vaccinated, said County Administrator Chuck Huckleberry.

“It’s an inconvenience for a variety of reasons because they don’t have the technology, they don’t have the time, because they don’t have the wherewithal, mobility issues, language barriers,” said Dr. Francisco Garcia, the county’s medical officer. “We need to decrease those barriers.”

The mass vaccination site would have been operated by FEMA and could have vaccinated up to 6,000 people daily.

The plan’s apparent demise comes as existing state-run mass vaccination sites across the state have thousands of appointments available. Those sites include one on the University of Arizona’s campus in Tucson.

State and county officials said sticking points in the talks on the proposed FEMA mass vaccination site included the state’s insistence it have a liability shield.

Without the shield, “we felt it put the state at a significant liability,” said Dr. Cara Christ, director of the state Department of Health Services.