Thousands of appointments available at state vaccine sites
Almost 30,000 vaccine appointments are still available for the week ahead at state-supported sites, a surplus that would have been hard to imagine just a few weeks ago.
At a state COVID-19 vaccine site that opened Monday at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, 81% of this week’s appointments through Sunday were still available as of midday Monday.
At the state-operated site at the Yuma Civic Center, 73% of this week’s appointments were still open, and at the state site at the University of Arizona in Tucson, 66% of the week’s appointment slots were unfilled.
Overall, nearly two-thirds of the appointments at state sites released Friday for the week ahead remained available Monday, according to numbers provided by the state health department.
Between appointments posted online and through the call center, about 28,100 appointments were still open midday Monday of the about 44,100 made available Friday.
Earlier in the vaccine rollout, all the week’s appointments would get booked within minutes or hours of their release.
All eight of the mass vaccination sites offered by the state health department had availability for the week, with some of the new and soon-to-open sites showing thousands of unbooked appointments.
Those who have been delaying appointments will now find it much easier to book a slot at a site in the Phoenix metro area, Tucson, Yuma or Flagstaff. The state sites use the Pfizer vaccine, which is the only vaccine currently-approved for those ages 16 and 17.
Here’s the approximate breakdown of the appointments through Sunday that are still available online and at the call center as of midday Monday:
● Dexcom, Mesa: 7,800.
● Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff: 5,000.
● University of Arizona, Tucson: 4,600.
● WestWorld, Scottsdale: 4,600.
● Yuma Civic Center, Yuma: 2,300.
● State Farm Stadium, Glendale (closing Friday): 2,000.
● Gila River Arena, Glendale (opening Friday): 1,700.
● ASU’s Desert Financial Arena, Tempe: 100.
Despite signs that demand at large state sites is dropping, in part because people now have more options to get vaccinated closer to home, the state health department is continuing to open large sites.
The state launched a vaccine site at Northern Arizona University’s fieldhouse in Flagstaff Monday, even though Coconino County already had one of the highest rates of vaccination in the state.
A new POD is opening at Scottsdale’s WestWorld exhibition center Thursday. And an indoor site at Gila River Arena in Glendale will replace State Farm Stadium’s vaccine site Friday.
None of those three new sites saw much success with people booking appointments. Of the 6,150 Flagstaff appointments released, about 5,000 were still available. At WestWorld, more than three-quarters of the released appointments were open. At Gila River Arena, about 1,700 of the 2,450 appointments released had yet to be taken.
State health director Dr. Cara Christ said at a Friday news briefing that plans for other state sites have been paused since vaccine supply is meeting demand.
State sites may start allowing walk-ins
Some state sites may start letting people come get a vaccine whenever convenient for them, with no appointment necessary.
Christ said that walk-ins will start happening at PODs that are seeing demand drop. Tucson’s University of Arizona and Yuma sites, for example, have had appointments fill much slower and are looking at allowing walkins.
The Northern Arizona University location also may offer walk-ins as well as pre-scheduled appointments, she said Friday.
How to make an appointment
Sites statewide that offer the vaccine are listed at azdhs.gov/findvaccine, along with information on how to register at each site.
Registration at the large state sites and some other locations is available at podvaccine.azdhs.gov. The state opens appointments for the next week on that website at 11 a.m. each Friday.
People without internet access or who need help registering for an appointment can call the state’s COVID-19 hotline at 844-542-8201.