By Mark Carlisle
Twitter: @mwcarlisle

Maricopa County public health officials plan to distribute the county’s first coronavirus vaccines next Thursday, Dec. 17, to health care workers with the highest exposure to COVID-19 patients or infectious materials.

Emergency medical services workers and staff and residents of long-term care, assisted living and skilled nursing facilities will also be in the first priority group to receive the vaccine this month or in January. Maricopa County Public Health Executive Director Marcy Flanagan said after discussions with Arizona Department of Health Services officials over the weekend.

Officials plan to focus the first doses on health care workers in the county and long-term care staff and residents will receive it a couple weeks after the first doses arrive.

“(The priority) would be those front line health care workers, so we can make sure that we are sustaining our health care infrastructure because we know that we’re going to really rely heavily on our hospitals and the work they do in the coming months,” Ms. Flanagan said in a Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting Monday. “And so, they are going to have priority over the long-term care facilities — it should just be by a couple weeks — but I think every day counts in this circumstance and this situation.”

The county is breaking its vaccine distribution into three phases and the first phase into three sub-phases. Phase 1A includes about 330,000 people — including health care workers and other hospital staff that may be exposed to coronavirus patients — EMS workers and staff and residents at various long-term care facilities.

A smaller group of about 123,000 at-risk health care workers will be the utmost priority for vaccine distribution. Ms. Flanagan said the county expects to receive about 60,000 vaccine doses within the next two weeks, which would cover about half of that group. The rest of the Phase 1A recipients are planned to receive a vaccine by early 2021.

There are two vaccines, one made by Pfizer and the other made by Moderna, that are preparing for U.S. distribution. The Pfizer vaccine is the only one that will be distributed in the initial phases in Maricopa County.

Phases 1B and 1C recipients will include about 1 million people: health care workers not included in Phase 1A, teachers, law enforcement, child care workers, high-risk individuals 65 and older, essential workers and other adults who must work in congregate settings. Phases 1B and 1C will be distributed from early 2021 into the spring.

Phase 2 will include about 2 million people, which will be the more at-risk people in the remaining population and people whose jobs require them to show up in person. This phase will be distributed as early as April and into the summer.

Lastly, Phase 3 will be the rest of the general population, which would be up to about 1.2 million people. This phase would be distributed in Summer 2021 and beyond.

The vaccine is voluntary and will be free, though a recipient’s health insurance company could be billed an administrative charge.

Experts say about 70% of a population must be vaccinated to reach herd immunity, where enough people are immune to a disease that its spread is no longer a great risk to public health. Ms. Flanagan said heard immunity will be reached in Maricopa County in the spring at the earliest, but it will more likely be in the summer.

Arizona is scheduled to receive its first vaccines next Tuesday, Dec. 15, and the county plans to start distribution to health care workers two days later, Thursday, Dec. 17.

The first vaccinations will be distributed at five different sites in the county, and recipients will be sent to a site based on their region. Eligible health care workers will be emailed by the county public health department to schedule an appointment, the date of which will be prioritized based on a worker’s exposure to the virus as a part of their job and personal health risks.

The five county vaccination sites will be staffed initially by health care staff, hospital volunteers, EMS workers and public health volunteers. The county is also requesting the National Guard aid in vaccine distribution.

By Phases 1B and 1C, which will start in January or February 2021, vaccines in the county will be available at more traditional health care providers such as hospitals and doctors offices, at some pharmacies, and at some large companies to distribute to their employees.

The broadest guidelines for who should be prioritized in vaccine distribution are set at the federal level. More specifics are set at the state level and the most specific distinctions are decided at the county level.

The federal guidelines are set by a committee within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the state level, the Arizona Vaccine and Antiviral Prioritization Advisory Committee, includes representatives from ADHS, hospitals, local health officials, immunization and nursing. The Maricopa County Vaccine and Antiviral Prioritization Advisory Committee includes representatives from all the county’s major hospital systems, first responders, firefighters, EMS workers and county public health staff.

Ms. Flanagan noted that deciding who among the listed groups in Phases 1B and 1C will fall to the county level.

“Those are discussions that here in Arizona we’re able to have and control,” she said. “When the decision is made at the CDC level of who’s to include in that group priority 1A, that’s really the playbook that everyone kind of agrees to and follows. But certainly, here in Arizona, we can, within that group 1A, prioritize who within that is most critical to get that early vaccine dose. And so, here in Maricopa County, that will be our front line health care workers who are most likely to be at risk and exposed to COVID-positive patients.”

Mark Carlisle can be reached at mcarlisle@newszap.com or found on Twitter @mwcarlisle.

Mark Carlisle
Associate Editor | Phoenix
@mwcarlisle

mcarlisle@iniusa.org

Meet Mark

Mark Carlisle joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2017, covering Glendale. He has since moved to the Daily Independent team, primarily covering the city of Phoenix along with other topics affecting the Valley at-large.

Community: Mark enjoys taking his young son to BabyTime at the Phoenix Public Library, to the OdySea Aquarium and to various sporting events around the Valley.

Education: Chapman University with a BA in English Journalism and one in Screenwriting.

Random Fact: Mark worked at a tuxedo shop in college. Just don’t ask him to tie a bowtie.

 

Hobbies: Spending time with his wife, son and dog, watching sports and TV shows, listening to audiobooks and occasionally writing fiction or designing a board game.