After a slow start to the vaccination process, Governor Doug Ducey says only a dozen or so states have vaccinated more people than Arizona.
While appearing on CNN's 'State of the Union' program Sunday, Governor Ducey said 629,000 Arizonans received at least one COVID-19 shot.
But, Ducey said, the state could run out of vaccines soon.
“We’re in danger of running out of the vaccines we have,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash. “All we can do is distribute what we receive from the federal government and from the private sector.”
The governor said Arizona asked the Biden administration for an additional 300,000 doses of vaccine over what it currently is allotted to help vaccinate winter visitors.
“We got a lot of people that come to Arizona. It's a beautiful day here. It's 68 degrees, and people migrate here from cold-weather states... they need vaccinations as well,” Ducey said.
On Thursday, AARP of Arizona sent a letter to the governor asking the state to expand its vaccination efforts to include places like assisted living facilities, group homes and veterans homes. The governor's office has not responded to AARP.
This week, Arizona will open another mass vaccination site at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
“Just so you know, we have the capability to do 12,000 vaccines a day at the Phoenix Municipal site,” the governor said. This was before adding only 500 people a day will be vaccinated there for now because of the shortage of vaccines.
Help can’t arrive fast enough as Arizona inches closer to 800,000 COVID cases and the death toll exceeding 13,000 people.
