Vaccine distribution plans at health care companies around the Valley
Health care workers across the Valley begin to get COVID-19 vaccination.
Posted at 3:42 PM, Dec 17, 2020
and last updated 2020-12-17 19:51:12-05
Here s how Banner Health and HonorHealth plan to distribute the vaccine.
Banner Health
After weeks of planning, Banner Health rolled out its drive-thru vaccine distribution operation at the state fairgrounds Thursday. It s one of the five pods in Maricopa County that will be giving out vaccines.
Banner leaders called it a soft launch, with 165 health care workers getting vaccinations Thursday inside one of the warehouses. They plan to scale-up each day and eventually do more than 1,000 vaccinations a day.
and last updated 2020-12-18 21:20:08-05
PHOENIX â In a press conference Friday, Banner Health officials are reporting morgue capacity has been exceeded at some hospitals due to recent COVID-19 deaths and 55% of ICU beds in their facilities are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
Banner Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Marjorie Bessel said 49% of all patients are being treated for COVID-19. These deaths have caused us to exceed our morgue capacity at some of our hospitals, Bessel said.
Bessel added that Banner Health is using refrigerated trucks to expand morgue capacity at Banner-University Medical Center Phoenix.
#NEW Banner Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Marjorie Bessel noting COVID-19 deaths on the rise.
With more than 7,600 new cases reported today, the number of Arizonaâs confirmed novel coronavirus cases topped 442,000 as of Friday, Dec. 18, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County, which reported 1,449 new cases today, has seen 57,250 of the stateâs 442,671 confirmed cases.
With 142 new deaths reported today, a total of 7,819 Arizonans had died after contracting COVID-19, including 875 deaths in Pima County, according to the Dec. 18 report.
The number of hospitalized COVID cases statewide continues to soar as the virus has begun to spread more rapidly, putting stress on Arizonaâs hospitals and surpassing July peaks. ADHS reported that as of Dec. 17, 3,931Â COVID patients were hospitalized in the state, setting a new record. The previous peak of 3,517 hospitalized COVID patients was set on July 13; that number hit a subsequent low of 468 on Sept. 27.Â
COVID-19 surge: Banner Health using refrigerated trucks to expand morgue capacity
Banner Health using refrigerated trucks to expand morgue capacity
An Arizona medical group is now using refrigerated trucks to store bodies as COVID-19 takes an increasingly deadly toll on our state.
PHOENIX - Healthcare officials are now saying the current surge of the coronavirus is starting to look worse than the summer surge.
Hospitals are filling to capacity with a spike in COVID-19 patients and at some locations, the morgues are full.
The situation at hospitals around the state is looking grim. In the past two weeks alone, ore than 500 people in Arizona have died of COVID-19. On Dec. 18, Banner Health officials announced they have brought in refrigerated trucks because their hospital morgue is full, and it needs to increase capacity for more bodies.
Arizona COVID-19 updates: Makeshift morgue set up at Banner hospital in central Phoenix Arizona Republic
A nurse in New York City was among the first people in the United States to receive the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Monday morning. Shipments were arriving across the country, with the first boxes arriving in Arizona.
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