Maricopa County Public Health has extensive information about COVID-19 vaccines, eligibility, appointment availability, and scheduling at Maricopa.gov/COVID19Vaccine. 

Public Health estimates there are approximately 170,000 individuals in Maricopa County eligible for vaccination in Phase 1A and 642,000 people eligible in Phase 1B.  That means it would take more than 1.6 million doses to fully vaccinate everyone in those groups.  This does not include adults ages 65-74, an estimated population of 400,000 in Maricopa County.

While we are proud of the work we have done to get hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses into arms of those at highest risk in our community, Maricopa County Public Health has not received enough doses yet to complete the 1A and 1B priority groups. As more vaccine becomes available, we will be able to implement plans to make doses more widely available.

The short answer is no because we don’t typically have leftover usable doses.

We have several processes in place to ensure we don't end up opening more vaccine doses than we need and no usable doses are discarded. This includes making the sites appointment-only so we can predict how many we will need, planning for cancellations and no-shows, and more. If there are any usable doses remaining at the end of the day (usually very few, if any), they are offered to volunteers or staff working at the POD site. The only vaccine that is discarded is vaccine that cannot be used due to safety concerns.

Because there are thousands of people who are currently eligible and waiting for doses, we are continuing to emphasize this operational plan so that the doses we have are given to those who are currently eligible and at highest risk. We look forward to having more vaccine supply available so that we can offer COVID-19 vaccines to more people in our community.

COVID-19 continues to be a serious challenge for our health care professionals, with more than 2,600 COVID-19 positive patients in Arizona central region hospitals as of February 1.  However, encouraging trends continue this week in terms of the spread of the virus.  According to newly-released data from ADHS, three statewide benchmarks decreased in Maricopa County during the most recent week of full data, although all three still show “substantial” spread.

• Case rates per 100,000: For the most recent week of full data (1/17), Maricopa County had 602 cases per 100,000 people. Anything over 100 cases per 100,000 is considered substantial spread.  For context, there were 966 cases per 100,000 people at the beginning of January (1/3).
• Percent positivity: For the most recent week of full data (1/17), Maricopa County has seen 19.1% of COVID-19 tests come back positive. Anything over 10% is considered substantial spread.  For context, the rate was 22.7% at the beginning of January (1/3).
• COVID-like illness as a percentage of hospital visits: For the most recent week of full data (1/17), 14.5% of hospital visits in Maricopa County are for COVID-like illness. Anything over 10% is considered substantial spread.  For context, the rate was 19.0% at the beginning of January (1/3).

Want to see data for your city, zip code, or school district?  Our school dashboard was updated today.  View it here >