PHOENIX — The second state-run COVID-19 vaccination site gave out its first shots Monday.
But officials said vaccine supply is limiting how many people they can serve per day.
Phoenix Municipal Stadium vaccination site opens completely booked up
The parking lot at Phoenix Municipal Stadium has been transformed into the second state-run vaccination site. State Farm Stadium in Glendale opened three weeks ago as the state’s first.
Phoenix Municipal Stadium will be running from 7a.m. to 5 p.m. for those with appointments. However, appointments for February at the site booked up a couple of weeks ago.
The state said 500 people will be able to get a COVID-19 shot each day.
“We have the capacity of doing 10,000 to 12,000 doses here just at Phoenix Municipal Stadium,” Dr. Cara Christ, Arizona Department of Health Services Director said. “If we had the vaccine.”
More appointments aren’t expected to be added until more vaccine doses are sent to the state.
State data shows a little over half of doses allocated have been used
According to state health department data, 56% of the nearly 1.2 million vaccine doses allocated to the state have been used in Arizona.
Christ said while the percentage lags by 24 hours in reporting, the goal is to use 70 to 80% of their vaccine allotment per week.
AZDHS had requested an additional 300,000 vaccine doses per week from the federal government, but that request was denied.
Christ said they’re continually asking their contacts within the federal government for more vaccine doses.
“We know that the ones that we work directly with are, you know, feverishly advocating for us to get more vaccine,” Christ said.
More Moderna vaccines expected, Pfizer allotment expected to remain steady
Christ said a 16% increase in the number of Moderna vaccines the state is receiving will be coming from the federal government. Those doses are going to more rural counties in Arizona to aid in vaccination efforts there.
The Pfizer doses the state has received have been mostly reserved for the state, Maricopa County and Pima County points of distribution due to the stringent requirements for storage.
Right now, Christ said she’s expecting the number of Pfizer doses the state is receiving each week is set to remain steady, despite requests for more doses.
“What we’ve been told is that they think it’s a pretty steady supply for the next couple of weeks and then we’ll start to see increases with significant increases weeks after that,” Christ said.
President Joe Biden said last week that states will be getting a three-week forecast to know how many doses of the COVID-19 vaccine they’ll be getting ahead of time.
Christ said as of Monday they have not received that forecast.
Using the doses they have
Christ said the shipments each week contain both first and second dose allotments and the state is making sure providers are not holding vaccine for second dose appointments.
“We really want to start getting the vaccine into the arms of Arizona. But as we do that and as we bring sites on, we have to moderate how much, how many doses are at each site, so that we make sure we can honor all of the appointments,” Christ said.
So far, 671,513 doses have been given out across Arizona, according to AZDHS. That equals out to about 9.3% of the state’s population.
“We are well on our way to our target of getting 3.5 million of our fellow citizens vaccinated by July 1st,” Maj. Gen. Michael McGuire, DEMA Director, said.