March 28, 2021 University of Arizona COVID Update

March 30, 2021
  • Last week the University of Arizona POD had just hit 75,000 vaccine doses administered.  Today we expect to exceed 100,000!  By AZDHS’s estimation, 27.6% of Pima County residents have received at least one dose, including 76.8% of our 65+ population, and 47.8% of the 55-64 age bracket. (See AZDHS’s data dashboard, Vaccine Prioritization) In Pima County 288,667 people have received at least one dose of vaccine.  Over 447,658 doses have been administered in the county. I heard Dr. Cullen say she estimates 600,000 - 700,000 more doses will need to be administered in the county.
  • Capacity at the UArizona POD continues to increase, as the chart below shows.  Just a week ago we administered approx. 2,300 doses per day.  Yesterday we exceeded 3,700 doses and we are on our way to 4,000 doses a day.
  • According to the demographic data provided to us by the State, 22.56% of the people coming to the UArizona POD have identified as Hispanic/Latinx.
  • We alerted the campus community this week to the discovery of the B.1.1.7 variant on campus. In Pima County, this variant has been detected in clinical cases since early March and believed to have a widespread presence in the county for several weeks based on wastewater testing. (For the record: UArizona expert Dr. Michael Worobey is credited with initially identifying this variant, and the variant was discovered in Pima County’s wastewater by another UArizona expert, Dr. Ian Pepper).  We are using the presence of this variant to remind the UArizona community now is the time to #BearDownVaxUp and to continue to #BearDownMaskUp.  
  • If you know non-medical people who would like to volunteer at the UArizona POD, please direct them to sign up online: UArizona Vaccination POD Volunteer Registration Form (arizona.edu). In alignment with the State POD practice, we attempt to vaccinate volunteers after one shift. Medical volunteers are in great need and should continue to be directed to AZ-ESAR-VHP (azdhs.gov).
  • In non-COVID news, there will be a virtual career fair on April 14 featuring jobs in the Tucson region.  We have a lot of students who want to stay in southern Arizona after graduation and we are working hard to connect them with local employers. 

Vaccine Administration at UArizona site (from UArizona dashboard) https://covid19.arizona.edu/dashboard

Vaccination numbers from the UArizona Dashboard

 

Cases (from UArizona dashboard) https://covid19.arizona.edu/dashboard

  • Our case numbers remain low, but we have seen a slight uptick over the past week.  Over the past 10 days – 49 new cases out of 12,823 tests, .4% positivity rate.
Campus testing numbers from the UArizona dashboard

 

Testing (from UArizona dashboard) https://covid19.arizona.edu/dashboard

  • Of the 12,823 tests administered in the past 10 days, 7,030 have been to off-campus students, 0.4% positivity rate
  • On-campus students have a positivity rate 0.5%
  • Employees – 3 positive employees over the past 10 days, out of 1,514 tests, 0.2% positivity rate. 
  • 231,487 tests administered total
Rt numbers from UArizona dashboard

Rt Values

The Rt in the 85719 zip code is .77.  Pima County’s Rt is also .77, and Arizona’s is .76.