Friday, April 23, 2021
The Pima County Health Department has pivoted in the direction of “Plan B” after plans for a federal POD died before implementation.
At the Tuesday Board of Supervisors meeting, County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry announced the Arizona Department of Emergency Management Division had informed them that the State Department of Health and the Federal Emergency Management Agency could not agree on the terms for the federal POD in Pima County.
“Team, after much consideration, and our best efforts, we were unable to find a fair and workable solution related to the FEMA-State agreement," Director of Emergency Management Allen Clark wrote in an email that Huckelberry shared with the board. "Therefore, DEMA, on behalf of the state will not sign the agreement.”
The original FEMA offer, made in March, would have brought enough vaccine to Pima County outside of the state's normal allocation for a six-week clinic that could have vaccinated an estimated 210,000 residents in low-income and minority neighborhoods, as those groups have lagged behind affluent white people in vaccination rates.
The federal POD, which required state approval, was originally denied by Governor Doug Ducey in March. On March 26, Dr. Cara Christ announced they would allow the county to move forward, so long as the site is independent of the state.
The agreement proposed by the state and released by the county on April 13 made clear the state would not be responsible or provide any assistance or resources for the federal POD. They also requested the county use its own registration system different from the state’s system. In the April 13 memo, Huckelberry said some of the terms and conditions appeared “particularly draconian.”
From March until now the vaccination effort has slowed, with the county and the state working on vaccinating individuals who may not have ready access to a vaccine or are vaccine hesitant, as well as dealing with the pause of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Pima County Medical Director Dr. Francisco Garcia said there is much more vaccine available now than there was when state officials were rejecting the deal, so it amounted to a lost opportunity, but the county had other ways to partner with FEMA.
“At the time that we made our ask and if in the timeframe that we would have gotten that resource it would have been terrific," Garcia said. "But given that the state and FEMA could not come to an agreement on the contractual language to allow us to pull in a large federal POD, what we have done is we have pivoted to our Plan B.”
With 896 new cases reported today, the total number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases rose past 857,000 as of Friday, April 23, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County, which reported 96 new cases today, has seen 114,721 of the state’s 857,347 confirmed cases.
With 17 new deaths reported this morning, a total of 17,238 Arizonans have died after contracting COVID-19, including 2,389 deaths in Pima County, according to the April 23 report.
A total of 594 coronavirus patients were in the hospital as of April 22. That’s roughly 11.5% of the number hospitalized at the peak of the winter surge, which reached 5,082 on Jan. 12. The summer peak was 3,517, which was set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent lowest number of hospitalized COVID patients was 468, set on Sept. 27, 2020.
A total of 995 people visited emergency rooms with COVID-like symptoms on April 22. That number represents 42.5% of the record high of 2,341 set on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. That number had peaked during the summer wave at 2,008 on July 7, 2020; it hit a subsequent low of 653 on Sept. 28, 2020.
Thursday, April 22, 2021
With 647 new cases reported today, the total number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases continued to climb as of Thursday, April 22, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County, which reported 187 new cases today, has seen 114,625 of the state’s 856,451 confirmed cases.
With 22 new deaths reported this morning, a total of 17,221 Arizonans have died after contracting COVID-19, including 2,388 deaths in Pima County, according to the April 22 report.
A total of 585 coronavirus patients were in the hospital as of April 21. That’s roughly 11.5 % of the number hospitalized at the peak of the winter surge, which reached 5,082 on Jan. 12. The summer peak was 3,517, which was set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent lowest number of hospitalized COVID patients was 468, set on Sept. 27, 2020.
A total of 1,030 people visited emergency rooms with COVID-like symptoms on April 21. That number represents 44% of the record high of 2,341 set on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. That number had peaked during the summer wave at 2,008 on July 7, 2020; it hit a subsequent low of 653 on Sept. 28, 2020.
A total of 175 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on April 21, which roughly 15% of the record 1,183 ICU patients set on Jan. 11. The summer’s record number of patients in ICU beds was 970, set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent low was 114 on Sept. 22, 2020.
State opposition sinks Pima County/FEMA joint vax center; New appointments available daily
Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry told the Board of Supervisors this week that the Arizona Department of Health’s contract requirements were too demanding for both FEMA and Pima County, so Pima County officials had given up on the project.
But Huckelberry said the county could still pursue vaccine clinics in low-income and minority neighborhoods with other support from FEMA.
The state of Arizona expects new first-dose appointments to open daily this week at the University of Arizona vaccination site, so they urged those 16 and older who are interested in an appointment to regularly check podvaccine.azdhs.gov.
Meanwhile, as temperatures rise, Pima County officials are shifting to indoor vaccination sites to avoid making staff and volunteers endure long days in triple-degree temperatures.
Pima County has opened a new indoor vaccine site at the Kino Event Center, where the county had earlier been doing COVID testing. That site is open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Register at azdhs.gov.
The county has also opened an indoor vaccination POD at El Pueblo Center, 101 W. Irvington Road, which is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. No appointment is necessary.
The drive-through POD at Banner-South Kino Stadium, 2500 E. Ajo Way, is now offering appointments between 7:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and will close permanently on May 14.
As of Monday, April 19, 382,615 people in Pima County had received at least one shot of the virus, accounting for 36.6% of the population. A total of 282,339 people were fully vaccinated.
You can register for your vaccine appointments at a state POD by visiting pod vaccine.azdhs.gov, and those who need assistance can call 1-844-542-8201.
Register for an appointment at a Pima County POD at pima.gov/covid19vaccineregistration or by calling 520-222-0119.
Many local pharmacies are now receiving vaccine doses. To find one near you, visit the ADHS website.
Get tested: Pima County has free COVID testing
Pima County is continuing to offer a number of testing centers and pop-up testing sites around town, including the northside Ellie Towne Flowing Wells Community Center, 1660 W. Ruthrauff Road. Schedule an appointment at pima.gov/covid19testing.
The University of Arizona’s antibody testing can determine if you have had COVID and now have antibodies. To sign up for testing, visit https://covid19antibodytesting.arizona.edu/home.
—with additional reporting from Austin Counts, Christina Duran, Jeff Gardner and Mike Truelsen
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Pima County Supervisor Steve Christy cited a bogus study making its way around right-wing websites when he made a run at lifting Pima County’s mask ordinance at yesterday’s board meeting.
Christy's motion died for lack of a second.
In justifying his push to lift the ordinance that requires Pima County residents to wear face masks in public when they can’t physically distance from other people (and also requires businesses to ask customers to wear masks), Christy cited a study he said was from “the Medical Center at Stanford University” that purported to show that wearing masks did nothing to stop the spread of COVID and could in fact be hazardous to people’s health.
Christy asked Dr. Francisco Garcia, the county’s chief medical officer, if he was familiar with the study.
Garcia said he was aware of that study and “the variety of different studies that come to different conclusions.” Garcia added that the Arizona Department of Health Services has advised that wearing marks is an effective “mitigation strategy against the coronavirus.”
“I guess these Stanford guys don’t know what they’re talking about,” Christy responded.
But as it turns out, Christy appears to have been hoodwinked by the alleged Stanford study, which has been making the rounds on right-wing websites and social media.
An AP fact check published yesterday reveals that the study is bogus.
“In reality, the study is not affiliated with Stanford and is based on debunked claims about face masks, including the false notion that wearing a face covering decreases oxygen levels and increases carbon dioxide levels,” AP reported.
Titled “Facemasks in the COVID-19 era: A health hypothesis,” the study was first published in the medical journal “Medical Hypotheses.” One doctor who blogs about medical misinformation told AP that the journal published “fringe science and hypotheses.”
WASHINGTON – Education officials rebuffed Gov. Doug Ducey’s decision this week to lift the mask mandate for state schools, with many districts planning to ignore what they called an “irresponsible” decision in a state where COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
“As soon as the governor released it, right away our locals went and met with superintendents, met with governing boards … almost within a couple of hours, it was, ‘Of course we’re going to keep the mask mandate,'” said Marisol Garcia, vice president of the Arizona Education Association.
Arizona Schools Superintendent Kathy Hoffman was more critical, calling Ducey’s move another in “a long line of decisions that have resulted in Arizona’s embarrassing response to a virus that has claimed over 17,000 lives and impacted thousands more.”
“While vaccines hold the promise of a return to normalcy, letting up on other mitigation strategies now just increases risk of transmission at a time when we should be doing everything possible to keep students and their families safe,” Hoffman said in a statement, noting that children younger than 16 are still ineligible for COVID-19 vaccines.
The executive order, released Monday, reverses a July order that had required masks for staff and any student older than age 5 while at school, on the bus or at a school-related activity. In a statement with the order, Ducey said that COVID-19 “transmission is low among youth, and Arizona was among the first states to prioritize vaccinating teachers.”
With 649 new cases reported today, the total number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases closed in on 856,000 as of Wednesday, April 21, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County, which reported 93 new cases today, has seen 114,438 of the state’s 855,804 confirmed cases.
With six new deaths reported this morning, a total of 17,199 Arizonans have died after contracting COVID-19, including 2,388 deaths in Pima County, according to the April 21 report.
A total of 584 coronavirus patients were in the hospital as of April 20. That’s roughly 11.5% of the number hospitalized at the peak of the winter surge, which reached 5,082 on Jan. 12. The summer peak was 3,517, which was set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent lowest number of hospitalized COVID patients was 468, set on Sept. 27, 2020.
A total of 1,015 people visited emergency rooms with COVID-like symptoms on April 20. That number represents 43% of the record high of 2,341 set on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. That number had peaked during the summer wave at 2,008 on July 7, 2020; it hit a subsequent low of 653 on Sept. 28, 2020.
A total of 169 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on April 20, which roughly 14% of the record 1,183 ICU patients set on Jan. 11. The summer’s record number of patients in ICU beds was 970, set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent low was 114 on Sept. 22, 2020.
New appointments available daily; Pima County transitioning to indoor vaccination sites, closing Banner South drive-thru clinic next month
The state of Arizona expects new first-dose appointments to open daily this week at the University of Arizona vaccination site, so they urged those 16 and older who are interested in an appointment to regularly check podvaccine.azdhs.gov.
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
With 702 new cases reported today, the total number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases rose past 855,000 as of Tuesday, April 20, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County, which reported 51 new cases today, has seen 114,345 of the state’s 855,155 confirmed cases.
With 40 new deaths reported this morning, a total of 17,193 Arizonans have died after contracting COVID-19, including 2,386 deaths in Pima County, according to the April 20 report.
A total of 562 coronavirus patients were in the hospital as of April 19. That’s roughly 11% of the number hospitalized at the peak of the winter surge, which reached 5,082 on Jan. 12. The summer peak was 3,517, which was set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent lowest number of hospitalized COVID patients was 468, set on Sept. 27, 2020.
A total of 969 people visited emergency rooms with COVID-like symptoms on April 19. That number represents 41% of the record high of 2,341 set on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. That number had peaked during the summer wave at 2,008 on July 7, 2020; it hit a subsequent low of 653 on Sept. 28, 2020.
A total of 155 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on April 19, which roughly 13% of the record 1,183 ICU patients set on Jan. 11. The summer’s record number of patients in ICU beds was 970, set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent low was 114 on Sept. 22, 2020.
Ducey nixes ‘vaccine passports’
Gov. Doug Ducey yesterday banned state and local governments and some businesses from requiring vaccination status.
Monday, April 19, 2021
The University of Arizona POD has 539 unfilled appointments for Monday, according to university officials.
Last Friday, the UA POD opened 7,000 appointments for the following week, and has about 4,600 appointments still open for Tuesday through Sunday as of Monday afternoon, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
ADHS reported they have nearly 30,000 unfilled appointments for Tuesday through Sunday across all state sites. Throughout the week, they will make some additional appointments available due to cancellations and no-shows.
To register for an appointment visit podvaccine.azdhs.gov or call 1-844-542-8201. Hours of operation for the call center are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m, seven days a week.
Pima County officials were scheduled to meet with Arizona Department of Health Services and FEMA to discuss contract terms of Pima County's federal POD today, according to an April 16 memo from County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry.
“What the contract does is basically delegate all authority to Pima County, so Pima County would be responsible for the operations, the set up, the tear down of that and give them the authority to work directly with FEMA,” said ADHS Director Dr. Cara Christ in a briefing Friday.
In the April 13 memo, Huckelberry said they are in the process of reviewing the requirements for the community vaccination center (CVC), but that “some terms and conditions appear to be particularly draconian.”
Under the agreement released by the county on April 13, the state makes clear “neither the State nor any agency thereof, shall have any responsibilities, obligations, or liability pertaining to any CVC to be developed, organized, and operated in Pima County.” The state also requires the county to provide FEMA with a plan for a registration system (which the county will be solely responsible for creating) before opening the federal POD for vaccine registrations and “that system shall not utilize any similar system created or utilized by the State.”
Christ said the state does not have the resources as they open two new sites in Arizona—the Westworld location in Scottsdale and the Northern Arizona University site—to allow the county to utilize their vaccination system.
“The onboarding and the deployment of that for a State POD site is a significant workload on the department,” said Christ. She also noted the onboarding and maintenance concerns were listed in their March 26 letter to FEMA, where the state announced they would allow the federal POD in Pima County, if their requirements were met.
The contract, like the March 26 letter, placed sole responsibility on Pima County for staffing, resources, and funding and indicated the county could not ask the State for help.
Friday, April 16, 2021
Experts say we should investigate “breakthrough infections” to look out for variants and understand who’s vulnerable. In many cases, that’s not happening. Crucial pieces of the puzzle are being tossed in the trash.
Dr. Carey Washington was eager to be vaccinated. The psychologist, who was still working at 80 years old, got his first coronavirus shot on Jan. 12 and followed up with the second Pfizer dose on Feb. 4. With both shots done, he let his guard down at the office he shared with another doctor, sometimes leaving his mask off.
Then he woke up on March 7 with aches and fatigue, feeling as though he might have a cold. When he started experiencing chest pain and finding it hard to breathe, he booked an appointment with his primary care physician, who sent him on to his cardiologist. Both thought that his symptoms must be related to his past heart issues. But Washington’s symptoms got worse. He was so tired he could barely get out of bed. His cardiologist reassured him that the fatigue was likely due to the irregular heartbeat he was experiencing, and that the medications prescribed for that would take a while to kick in. But on March 12, Washington’s son took him to the emergency room anyway. A test revealed Washington was positive for COVID-19.
A week later, he was transferred to the intensive care unit. On March 25, he died.
Washington’s daughter, Tanya Washington, says that after her father was admitted to the Prisma Health Richland Hospital, she was determined to understand why. Why had Washington gotten sick despite being fully vaccinated? “Doctors said that because he was vaccinated, we think this may be a variant,” a strain of the coronavirus that could be more contagious or dangerous, Tanya recalls. She said they originally thought it might be a variant found in South Africa.
