Arizona Can Meet Biden's May 1 Vaccine Eligibility Deadline

PHOENIX, AZ — Arizonans should be able to access a COVID-19 vaccination before the May 1 target that President Joe Biden announced on Thursday.

That's the takeaway from Arizona Department of Health Services Director, Dr. Cara Christ, who discussed the state's vaccine rollout and more with members of the media on Friday.

Christ said the Grand Canyon State should be able to open up vaccinations to the three remaining age groups — which are 45-54, 35-44 and 16-34 — no later than May.

Currently, the only age groups that quality for the vaccinations are those age 55 and older, in addition to health care and EMS workers, long-term care facility employees, others that live in high-risk congregate settings, funeral home workers, education and child care workers, law enforcement and other first responders, corrections officers and staff, and additional frontline essential workers.

As of Friday, 2,351,851 vaccine doses have been administered statewide — with 1,492,003 receiving their first dose and 870,899 that are fully vaccinated.

She also said the projections are dependent upon the state receiving a consistent amount of vaccinations in the interim.

"Based on our hybrid prioritization and using our current number of doses that we are receiving as a baseline, we anticipate that it would take us about 3-4 weeks to move through each of age groups, which would put us in line with the president," Christ said.

Christ said the state's current, age-based prioritization system for COVID-19 vaccinations shouldn't complicate their ability to meet the president's benchmark.

She added that the current system allows the state and its counties to lower the qualifying age for vaccines once 50-60 percent of that age group is vaccinated or demand slows down.

Above all, Christ expressed steadfast confidence that the state's vaccine efforts would hit their mark, barring some sort of force majeure.

"As long as we continue to get the vaccine and we don't have a winter storm that delays shipment, we should be right in line with that goal," Christ said.