Pinal adds 65 and over to early vaccine group

Pinal County Public Health and its community partner vaccination teams have added persons 65 and older to the 1B-1 early vaccination group, increasing the number of county residents eligible for vaccination from about 75,000 to about 130,000.

But they shouldn’t expect to get a shot in the arm right away, even though two pharmacies in town are getting federal allocations of the vaccine.

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Through Feb. 12, the most recent date for which data is available, the county had administered 52,556 doses of the Moderna vaccine, according to Pinal County Public Health Director Tascha Spears.

The county opened a new vaccine location at the Florence Library, with more than 600 individuals getting inoculated there last Wednesday and Thursday. The county program was aided by 10 federal vaccinators from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Those vaccinators will be deployed to other locations in the United States next week.

The county’s next shipment of vaccine, expected to arrive this week, is expected to contain 5,500 first doses and 4,500 second doses for those who have already received their first dose. That is a significant increase in the number of doses for the county, which has received just 2,000 and 1,800 doses in its last two shipments.

The pharmacies listed on the Pinal COVID vaccine location web page are now receiving federal allocations of vaccine shipped directly to them. According to the county these sites were chosen by their corporate offices. A list of all available vaccine sites can be found here.

In Maricopa, those locations include the Walgreen’s locations at 21274 N. John Wayne Pkwy. and 41480 W. Maricopa-Casa Grande Hwy. and the pharmacy at Fry’s Food & Drug at 20797 N. John Wayne Pkwy.

County health officials warned the large number of people trying to schedule appointments is overwhelming online registration. Public Health phone lines are experiencing high call volume and the county is urging patience on behalf of those who need assistance in booking an appointment.

For the seven-day period ending Feb. 11, the county had a total of 51 new cases, bringing the total for the pandemic to 44,490. That weekly total is down from 122 new cases the previous week. The county has a positive test rate of 14.1 percent, a hospitalization rate of 8.14 percent and an intensive care unit admission rate of 0.63 percent.