Ducey asks Biden administration for more COVID-19 vaccines to satisfy demand

(The Center Square) – Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey says the state’s residents, permanent and seasonal, are in dire need of more COVID-19 vaccine doses from the federal government.

Ducey said the state is asking President Joe Biden’s administration for an additional 300,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“What we need right now, Dana, are more vaccines,” Ducey said Sunday morning on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We’re in danger of running out of the vaccines we have. All we can do is distribute what we receive from the federal government and from the private sector. … But just so you know, we have the capability to do 12,000 vaccines a day at the Phoenix Municipal site. We can only schedule 500 because of the lack of inventory that we have.”

Ducey said the state has distributed 629,000 vaccinations, although people need to receive the second shot before considered fully vaccinated. Some reports had Arizona among the nation’s slowest in the race to distribute vaccine doses, but Ducey and other state officials said they had been using incomplete data that excluded private vaccinations.

Some have complained of vaccine recipients jumping in front of others more deserving of the shot simply by being in a car with someone who had an appointment at one of the state’s vaccination sites.

State officials said they operate on a case-by-case basis and can choose to vaccinate those who may be in close contact with a vulnerable resident.

Ducey said Arizona’s winter visitors are to blame for the greater need than expected.

“We’ve got a lot of people that come to Arizona,” he said. “It’s a beautiful day here. Today, it’s 68 degrees. And people migrate here from other cold-weather states. They need vaccinations as well.”

Arizona is in Phase 1B of its vaccination rollout, which serves education and child care workers, protective services occupations, and adults age 75 and older.

The Arizona Department of Health Services reported 3,741 new COVID-19 cases Monday and attributed four new deaths to the disease.

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