Army Spc. Angel Laureano holds a vial of the COVID-19 vaccine, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., Dec. 14, 2020. /DoD photo by Lisa Ferdinando
By BrieAnna J. Frank, Stephanie Innes and Alison Steinbach | Arizona Republic
The Arizona Department of Health Services confirmed that the state is one of many around the country that did not get the expected allocation of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for the week of Dec. 20.
Related: Arizona COVID-19 updates: Police, firefighters, teachers will be next in line for vaccine
The state expected to order 70,200 doses of the vaccine for the week but was only able to order 41,925. ADHS spokesman Steve Elliot wrote in an email that the department had asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for an explanation for the difference and was awaiting a response.
The Moderna vaccine should still arrive in the next few days, allowing for COVID-19 vaccinations in all 15 counties.
Other states this week found themselves scrambling to adjust as they received word they would get between 20% and 40% less vaccine next week than they had been told as late as Dec. 9. States were given estimates that turned out to be based on vaccine doses produced, not those that had completed quality control and were releasable. Only on Wednesday and later were states informed of the actual numbers.
The department anticipates receiving 119,400 Moderna vaccine doses between Monday and Wednesday. Of those, Maricopa County will receive 18,500 and Pima County will receive 17,000, Elliot said.
“The ripple effect is huge,” said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers. “The planning piece is critical. We cannot roll this vaccine out on the fly.”
