State continues call for patience awaiting COVID-19 vaccines

A Pennsylvania health official continued the call for patience Wednesday in awaiting a COVID-19 vaccine.

“Right now the demand for vaccines far outweighs the supply, but it will catch up,” state Department of Health Senior Advisor Lindsey Mauldin said in a virtual media briefing.

As of Wednesday morning, first doses were administered to at least 634,458 people in the state, while another 216,361 were fully vaccinated with both required doses, she said.

Luzerne County’s vaccination count: 24,961 first doses and 6,645 double-doses, state statistics show.

The number is higher, but there is a lag because the window to report to the state is 24 hours or 72 hours, depending on the provider, Mauldin said.

The state is still in a phase known as 1A in which the vaccine is limited to health care workers, residents 65 and older and those younger with serious medical conditions that make them more susceptible to severe illness or death.

More than 4 million state residents are eligible for the vaccine in this phase, which means more than 8 million doses are needed to fully vaccinate them, she said.

With the state dependent on a federal vaccine supply not keeping pace, Mauldin said she can’t specify a firm estimate on when vaccines will be available to those in the 1B phase, which covers law enforcement, emergency services personnel, corrections officers, clergy and workers in public transit, grocery stores, education, manufacturing, the U.S. Postal Service and childcare and congregate-care facilities that were not part of 1A.

This week, the state is receiving a federal allotment of 166,375 first doses and 139,875 second doses, Mauldin said. She noted these numbers don’t include Philadelphia or federal facilities such as military bases and prisons, which receive and administer their own vaccine allocations.

She expressed optimism more doses will become available, citing Tuesday’s announcement that the federal government will be sending additional doses directly to retail pharmacies participating in a federal partnership. In Pennsylvania, those pharmacies would be Rite Aids and ones in many grocery store chains operated by TopCo Associates LLC.

This direct distribution should free up doses in the state’s weekly allocation for other providers, she said.

Meanwhile, the state is developing other initiatives to increase access to the vaccine, Mauldin said:

• Reaching out to senior support networks to help residents navigate the online system to schedule vaccination appointments with a local provider.

• Coordinating with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency on logistics for community vaccination sites that may be set up when more vaccines are available.

• Strengthening the health department’s toll-free hotline so it will become a pathway for those without internet access to schedule vaccination appointments.

There is no statewide health department system to schedule vaccines. Instead, the state has an online map at www.health.pa.gov showing which providers are administering the vaccine and information on how to contact each directly to book appointments.

On Wednesday, 23 Luzerne County vaccine sites were listed on the map.