Winter storms affecting vaccine supply
Severe winter weather in much of the U.S. is delaying COVID-19 vaccine shipments to Arizona, which is disrupting some vaccination appointments.
Shipping problems may delay some people from getting their vaccinations as scheduled in the short-term.
Officials with the Arizona Department of Health Services said Wednesday that they’ve been advised by their federal partners that Moderna and Pfizer vaccines were not shipped on schedule this week.
Moderna doses were expected sometime on Wednesday instead of Monday, and the Pfizer shipments are expected to arrive late.
Doses typically arrive early in the week for use across the state that week.
Peoria physician Dr. Sandhya Ravi said she canceled 200 scheduled COVID-19 vaccination appointments at her clinic on Wednesday because of a delayed shipment of the Moderna vaccine.
Phoenix-based Banner Health can
celed a mass vaccination clinic it was co-hosting in Northern Colorado because of vaccine supply problems, and the company’s chief clinical officer said Wednesday that some vaccine appointments in Arizona could be affected.
“If you are a patient with an upcoming appointment, we’ll ask you to continue to watch for either a phone call, a text message, or an email, if there needs to be a change to your appointment,” said Dr. Marjorie Bessel, chief clinical officer for Banner Health, which is administering COVID-19 vaccines across the state.
“In Pima County is where we have the most significant impact regarding potential need for additional vaccine,” she said. “Right now, we do have enough vaccine for today and tomorrow. We do have a number of appointments upcoming on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and those are at risk if we do not get supply.”
The Pima County Health Department announced Wednesday afternoon that some vaccine sites will be “temporarily postponing a limited number of appointments” due to limited vaccine supply. About 2,800 appointments could be postponed Thursday through Saturday if new doses do not arrive soon.
Some appointments could be affected over the next couple of days at Tucson Medical Center, Tucson Convention Center and Banner South, county officials said. Patients will be contacted and rescheduled, and no one will lose their spot in line.
The county said any impacts will be short-term and vaccination locations will return to normal when more vaccine arrives. The county has been told more vaccine is on the way, health director Dr. Theresa Cullen said via a news release.
“This situation demonstrates the nimbleness and efficiency of the county’s operations with its partners, as well as our capacity to provide even more vaccine in Pima County,” Pima County chief medical officer Dr. Francisco Garcia said in a statement. “By design, there is not vaccine sitting around on a shelf somewhere. Once these delays are overcome, we will be able to get back to full speed very quickly.”
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses, with three weeks between doses for Pfizer and four weeks between doses for Moderna. However, there is some leeway, said Dr. Joshua LaBaer, director of the Arizona State University Biodesign Institute.
A week or two of delay won’t severely affect the outcome, he said, although the weather delay is not expected to be long.
Banner appears to have enough supply in Maricopa, Pinal and Coconino counties to cover appointments for the rest of the week, and is slightly short of supply in Gila County, Bessel said.
Banner officials “will directly communicate” with anyone whose appointment needs to be adjusted, she said. The vaccine supply will be managed “very tightly, almost on a day-byday basis” over the next couple of days, she said.
“We do expect that, of course, to improve over the next couple of days,” she added.
The weather delays are affecting both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine supplies, Bessel confirmed.
“And also, it’s affecting not just a vaccine, but also the supplies that we need to be able to distribute and provide vaccine to patients,” she said. “So we are currently also waiting for supplies such as needles and syringes that have been affected by weather.”
The Arizona Department of Health Services says all vaccine sites in Maricopa and Pima counties administering the Pfizer vaccine currently have enough supply to maintain operations, including state-run POD sites.
“Counties are the local allocators for vaccine across Arizona, and specific information on any impacts on appointments in each local jurisdiction would come from the individual counties,” state officials said in a news release.
“For other sites, the situation is fluid and will depend on each provider’s current supply,” the release says. “ADHS is in close contact with our federal and local partners to monitor the situation, which continues to develop.”
The federal government has allocated to Arizona 176,600 total vaccine doses expected to be delivered statewide this week, including 85,800 Pfizer doses and 90,800 Moderna doses.
Nationally, 4.7% of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to Wednesday’s Bloomberg COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker. Arizona state data show about 4.2% of the population has received two doses of vaccine, and about 13% of Arizona’s population has received at least one dose of vaccine, data show.
Reach health care reporter Stephanie Innes at Stephanie.Innes@gan nett.com or at 602-444-8369. Follow her on Twitter @stephanieinnes. Reach reporter Alison Steinbach at Ali son.Steinbach@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-444-4282. Follow her on Twitter @alisteinbach