PHOENIX — Arizona will see the first set of COVID-19 vaccines arrive this week.
But getting the vaccines is just one step of a complex logistical problem of distributing doses to those who need them.
Arizona has seen a rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks.
Maricopa County health officials say they will get vaccines this week, with the first doses potentially given out by the end of the week.
When the thousands of vaccines arrive, they will need to be stored at frigid temperatures in order to be effective.
"The fact is none of us has seen anything like this in our life... it's changed our world upside down," Chris Kopach, an incident commander with UArizona, said.
The Pfizer vaccine needs to be kept at below negative-70 degrees Celsius. If approved, a potential Moderna vaccine would need to be kept below freezing as well.
The University of Arizona's answer: Storing them in gigantic freezers, which arrived last week.
The freezers stand about 4-and-a-half feet wide and 8-and-a-half feet tall and can keep the vaccines at negative-80 degrees.
Kopach said each freezer can hold about 140,000 vaccines. The freezer farm can hold approximately 1.6 million doses of the vaccines.
"It's huge, it's huge. (To) be able to have that infrastructure in place, we are now able to receive hundreds of thousands of vials of the vaccine," Kopach said.
UArizona ordered the freezers weeks ago, when they realized there would likely be a need with the vaccines in development.
It is unclear when exactly the farm could store the vaccine, as UArizona is working with health officials at Pima County.
Farms like these are a step in a complex process.
The vaccines still need to be distributed. Those who get it, need to be logged to make sure they get a second dose. More vaccine will also need to be produced as it is rolled out to everyone in the coming months.
However a vaccine is approved, it's being shipped and we have a way to store it. All important steps to stop COVID-19.
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