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Arizona Department Of Corrections Says 12% Of Arizona State Prison Population Has Received 1st Vaccine Dose

The Arizona Department of Corrections says it has received 3,940 doses of vaccine and so far more than 3,300 doses have been administered in state prisons.

Department of Corrections said the two-dose Moderna vaccine is currently being offered to inmates, but the Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine is being offered to the inmate wildland fire crews.

Additionally, a department spokesperson said the private prisons have administered just over 1,000 vaccines to date.

The current population for all state prisons is nearly 37,000. That means only 12% of inmates have received the first dose compared to more than a quarter of the general population of Arizona.

According to a January email survey sent to inmates in state prisons, 58% of inmates surveyed by the said they planned to get the vaccine.

More than 6,600 inmates have been determined to be at high risk for COVD-19 due to their age and underlying health conditions.

More than 12,000 inmates have contracted COVID-19 in Arizona state prisons since the beginning of the pandemic and at least 50 have died from the virus.

→  Get The Latest News On COVID-19 In Arizona 

Jimmy Jenkins was a producer and senior field correspondent at KJZZ from 2014 to 2021.