Slow COVID-19 vaccine roll out in Arizona

While COVID-19 cases in Arizona continue to rise, vaccinations in the state are not rolling out as quickly as planned. We got an update from Will Humble, executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association. The discussion focuses on the rise in numbers in Arizona and how the people are reacting. Arizona is in need to improve how it’s handling the pandemic but it doesn’t help when people are pushing back on mask mandates.

Humble talks about the effectiveness of masks despite the pushback. Arizona’s ICU’s are also reaching capacity with a 93 percent occupation rate. Humbles projects that it’ll keep getting worse till the middle of January. He thinks the problem with the increase is that seven percent of people who get the virus need hospitalization. This won’t be fixed until people get discharged and cases slow down.

Moving on to vaccines in Arizona, the roll out has been slow indeed. Humble believes it’ll get better in the next couple of weeks. The reason for the slow initiative is a defect in the Arizona Health Department’s system.