YRMC to vaccinate nearly 4,000 residents in just four days

CBS 13'S Cody Lee takes a closer look at the hospital's mission

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Yuma Regional Medical Center (YRMC) is holding its vaccine clinic at the Yuma Civic Center this week. The hospital received 3,800 doses on Tuesday and the goal is to administer all of them by Saturday.

The latest shipment is slightly larger than those it's received in the past, and all of the doses will be used quickly.

More than 1,100 people came to get vaccinated when the clinic opened up Wednesday and another thousand were expected to get their shot Thursday.

The hospital tells 13 On Your Side's Cody Lee that the call center is in the middle of taking both inbound and outbound calls. All part of YRMC’s pre-registration system.

If you receive a call from YRMC, they’re most likely wanting to schedule your vaccine appointment.

“We did close to 96%. So far in above 65. So the other group is, is there but only a small fraction of the vaccine are going to them. So we know for a fact we even as this group of we have a large number of population which is leftover,” the hospital leader said.

Currently, Yuma County is still vaccinating those in prioritized phase 1B, which includes 65 and older, first responders, and educators.

“The CDC has changed it's guidance so many times on this, but nonetheless I think we want to make sure that we get first doses to as many as possible,” Dr. Magu explained.

But when will we move to the next phase? Dr. Bharat Magu, with YRMC, gave us some insight.

“Now let's see if the state decides to give us 7000 a week for a month, I think we'll be, we'll be pretty much close to moving the targets down to all the eligible 1B and 1C at that point,” Dr. Magu said.

According to YRMC, more than 45,000 Yuma County residents, categorized in the current phase, still have yet to receive a vaccine.

We have yet to hit the 50 percent margin.

According to YRMC, changes could come now that more drugmakers are getting authorization to produce their vaccines.

“We expect Johnson & Johnson, will be ramped up pretty quickly because their capacity is significantly higher close to Pfizer and Moderna obviously is a smaller company. So it took them a while to ramp up. But j&j would have a very quick ramp up time. And that's probably within the next six weeks we'll see j&j coming in for distribution,” Dr. Magu said.

That is something that could dramatically increase the number of doses the county is receiving.