UArizona Vaccination Site Gives 1K Doses To Pima County

TUCSON, AZ — The University of Arizona is giving Pima County a vaccine boost.

The Pima County Health Department announced Wednesday in a news release that the university's state-run mass vaccination site has provided the county with 1,000 much-needed doses of the coronavirus vaccine. The Moderna doses were originally allocated to U of A to administer but will now be used by the county to increase its vaccination efforts in marginalized and high-risk areas.

“We are grateful to University of Arizona President Robert Robbins for sharing this resource with us,” Chuck Huckelberry, Pima County Administrator, said in a statement. “This supply is going to do immediate good in helping us get vaccine into the hardest to reach parts of our community.”

The additional supply will be used in three upcoming pop-up vaccine sites in east and south Tucson, specifically targeting parts of the community with high numbers of eligible populations that have had a hard time registering for appointments, traveling to them or have a language barrier. The county is also ramping up its mobile vaccination efforts to increase vaccination rates.

“The university has been an important partner since the beginning of our response to COVID-19 and we appreciate their support of our community,” Health Department Director Dr. Theresa Cullen said in a statement.

The university transitioned from a county site into a state-run vaccination site on Feb. 18.

The site will eventually operate 24 hours a day and seven days per week as more vaccine doses arrive in Arizona. At full capacity, the site can vaccinate up to 6,000 people per day.

As of Wednesday, 1,114,425 Arizonans had received at least one dose of the vaccine and 438,534 had been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to state data.