A tent at the University of Arizona where people can confirm their COVID-19 vaccine appointment. January 2021.
The COVID-19 vaccination clinic on the University of Arizona campus will be converted into a state-run mass vaccination site late next week, with the potential to vaccinate six times as many people as it does now.
But it's unclear whether the change will mean more vaccinations for Pima County residents, or just a more efficient system to administer them.
The university, the state, and Pima County announced the change this Wednesday morning. UA president Robert Robbins says the site currently sees about one thousand people over six hours every day. "We have plans to increase that to between 1500 and 2000. If you run that 24 hours a day, you get to that six to eight thousand doses per day which we need to do," Robbs said on a conference call Wednesday.
If the UA site does reach six thousand vaccinations per day, it would match the state vaccination site at State Farm Stadium in Glendale.
However, officials made contradictory statements Wednesday on whether the UA site would be adding to the overall number of shots administered in Pima County.
In an interview with AZPM Gov. Doug Ducey said, "The vaccines that are going to be going out in the mass vaccination site are going to be from the state allotment so it won't be less vaccines that are coming in to Pima County but more that will be distributed into people's arms."
UA president Robert Robbins, speaking with media Wednesday, said the university insisted that the expanded campus vaccination site should not come at the expense of other sites run by Pima County. "We made it very clear that we're happy to do this but we need incremental vaccines to come because right now we've got incredible work going on through the county's pods," he said.
If true, that would mark a change from the state's earlier statements. Dr. Cara Christ, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, told Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry in a letter on January 29, "(T)he state will retain the necessary vaccine from the Pima County allocation to ensure sufficient vaccine for scheduled appointments."
The county supplies vaccine to clinics at Banner Health and Tucson Medical Center, as well as clinics in outlying areas through a private contractor. Under the plan Christ proposed in January, the state would reduce the vaccine shipments going to the county health department in order to have stock on hand for its own distribution site at the UA.
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