Cara M. Christ

About Cara Christ

Cara M. Christ, MD, Director Arizona Department of Health Services

Arizona’s Process for Allocating Vaccine to Local Jurisdictions

By |2021-08-11T14:35:38-07:00February 11th, 2021|Preparedness|

This week, Arizona celebrated the milestone of more than 1 million doses of vaccine administered by the state, counties and health care providers. While this is a significant achievement, vaccination sites have capacity to vaccinate even more Arizonans if additional vaccine doses are made available by federal partners. Since Arizona is a “home rule” state [...]

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New COVID-19 Data Dashboard Section Released: Vaccine Administration

By |2021-08-11T14:42:48-07:00February 9th, 2021|Preparedness|

On Monday I had the honor of taking President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on a virtual tour of our State Farm Stadium vaccination site in Glendale. During the tour, the vice president raised an issue that many people share. Here’s a lightly edited version of our exchange: THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hi, Doctor.  [...]

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COVID-19 Vaccine Surveillance

By |2021-08-11T14:42:48-07:00January 7th, 2021|Preparedness|

Throughout the COVID-19 response, our goal has been to provide real-time data on all aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including cases, hospitalizations, laboratory results, and vaccines. Ensuring rapid distribution of vaccine to high-risk groups is a critical component of public health during a pandemic response. Surveillance of vaccine administration data is especially important when trying [...]

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Safety Is an Important Part of Approving COVID-19 Vaccines

By |2021-08-11T14:42:48-07:00December 24th, 2020|Preparedness|

Last week, I had the privilege of being among a group of healthcare workers receiving some of the first COVID-19 vaccinations in Arizona. This was during an event held at ADHS. I was inspired by the reasons these professionals gave for wanting to get vaccinated right away, whether it was keeping patients, family, and friends [...]

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Vaccine Prioritization in Arizona

By |2021-08-11T14:42:48-07:00December 18th, 2020|General|

On Friday, December 11, the FDA announced its approval of an emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met on Saturday, December 12, and recommended the vaccine for people age 16 and older. This week, the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Arizona. The first vaccine clinics [...]

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Update: Improved Method for Determining ZIP code Data

By |2021-08-11T14:42:48-07:00December 9th, 2020|Preparedness|

Throughout the COVID-19 response, ADHS has continually reevaluated how we are collecting, analyzing, and presenting COVID-19 data for cases, hospitalizations, and laboratory tests. As the COVID-19 testing landscape changes, with new tests, new laboratories, and new guidance on who should be tested, and as data come to ADHS in new ways, we have examined whether [...]

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New COVID-19 Data Dashboard Section Released: Total Tests Conducted

By |2021-08-11T14:42:48-07:00December 8th, 2020|Preparedness|

Since our COVID-19 response began in January, our epidemiologists have been reviewing and analyzing COVID-19 data. Our data reporting regarding this novel disease continues to evolve as we collect additional data and learn about which data elements are most useful to understand how COVID-19 is impacting Arizonans. Over the course of this response, our Data [...]

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Winter Holidays: Impacting COVID-19 Cases in Arizona

By |2021-08-11T14:42:48-07:00December 1st, 2020|Preparedness|

There are many impacts that the holidays can have on COVID-19 in Arizona. With people traveling and gathering with loved ones to celebrate Thanksgiving, we anticipate the cases and the need for hospitalizations to continue to increase over the next few weeks. We also know that the holidays can have an impact on our public [...]

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Syndromic Surveillance and COVID-Like Illness

By |2021-08-11T14:42:48-07:00November 9th, 2020|Preparedness|

Public health utilizes several surveillance tools to monitor the spread of disease throughout a community. These tools, like case reporting, laboratory reporting, and syndromic surveillance, generate many of the data points that are displayed on our COVID-19 data dashboard. These surveillance tools are also used to monitor the metrics we use to set business reopening [...]

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COVID-19 Safety For Our Winter Visitors

By |2021-08-11T14:42:48-07:00November 6th, 2020|Preparedness|

The arrival of winter visitors is a welcome indication of cooler days ahead. If you are a returning visitor or discovering our state’s cooler months, welcome! We want you to be safe and healthy while you're here, and we need your help to protect everyone this winter. With COVID-19 still active in our communities, I [...]

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