Governor, Dr. Richard Carmona join forces in new COVID-19 vaccine PSA
A public service announcement featuring Governor Doug Ducey and Dr. Richard Carmona, 17th U.S. Surgeon General and the governor’s adviser on public health preparedness, is now airing on Arizona television stations in addition to social media and streaming media. I hope you’ll heed their advice to help protect yourself and others from COVID-19: Get vaccinated if you aren’t already. Get [...]
COVID-19 testing has come a long way in Arizona
Since the start of the pandemic, more than 15.5 million diagnostic tests have allowed Arizonans to learn whether they have COVID-19 and take action to protect themselves and others. Testing has come a long way in Arizona, both in terms of capacity and options. COVID-19 tests are available to everyone, including the uninsured, at low or no cost. Today, hundreds [...]
Omicron, our hospitals, and the need for vaccination and boosters
Like many of you, I remain concerned about how the extraordinarily contagious Omicron variant may affect our healthcare system. Arizona’s hospitals are already strained by COVID-19 patients, the vast majority of whom are unvaccinated. Here are some things on my mind as we continue learning about this fast-spreading variant: Omicron is likely to cause more breakthrough infections in vaccinated people [...]
Dashboard numbers temporarily affected by the holiday
Cases in today’s COVID-19 data dashboard update are lower than they’d ordinarily be because of the Christmas holiday. That also means we can expect to see higher numbers of cases added in the coming days as the dashboard catches up. We take pride in having a dashboard that keeps Arizonans apprised of COVID-19 in our state. Major holidays are a [...]
Influencers are essential to encouraging COVID-19 vaccination; you can be one too
The importance of influencers can’t be overstated when it comes to encouraging people to protect themselves from COVID-19. That’s why we were so pleased to share on our social media accounts word that former President Donald Trump says he received his booster dose. The other living former presidents have encouraged vaccination, and President Joe Biden received his booster dose live [...]
CDC: If you received the J&J shot, get boosted with Moderna or Pfizer
If you are among the approximately 321,000 people in Arizona who received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine, it’s natural to have questions about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “expressing a clinical preference” for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines over the one you received. The CDC notes that this preference for the two available mRNA vaccines [...]