Delaware County sees infusion of vaccines

Delaware County has turned a tide.

What for months and months looked like a vast, bleak frontier on the COVID vaccine front for Delaware County, and all the Philadelphia suburbs, has had a dramatic change of scenery - at least when it comes to the most recent allotment.

While the state has been distributing the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine since December, it’s been very slow coming to this area as state officials directed much of it to less populated parts of Pennsylvania.

Now, Delaware County officials recently announced a surge of vaccine being sent here — with the ability to be vaccinating up to 20,000 county residents a week.

“We are happy with the recent decisions by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Acting Secretary (Alison) Beam, and we’re excited that this significant increase in the vaccine supply allocated to Delaware County —which more than doubles the doses we’re receiving — will prove to be a turning point in this long battle with COVID,” Delaware County Council Chairman Brian Zidek said.

Last week alone, the Pennsylvania Department of Health sent Delaware County 7,000 Moderna doses and 2,340 Pfizer doses along with a guarantee that Delco, Bucks, Chester and Montgomery would each be receiving 10,500 Johnson & Johnson doses on a weekly basis going forward.

“The State Department of Health’s decision to send the J&J vaccine directly to the county will be a huge help in enabling the County to vaccinate some of our most vulnerable residents, including those who are homebound, homeless, or incarcerated,” county Councilwoman Christine Reuther said.

In addition, Delaware County will now be the single largest dispenser of COVID vaccines from this point as they receive doses directly from the state. There are many vaccine providers in Delaware County and most of them are private, such as health systems, Rite Aids, CVS’s and other independent pharmacies.

Two factors are driving the spike in vaccine doses being sent to the region.

First, vaccine production by the manufacturers Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson - has continued to increase significantly. Last Monday, the Biden administration set a goal of having 200 million shots by the president’s 100th day. The president also said that a record number of 33 million doses of vaccine will be made available to vaccinators this week.

In mid-March, the president announced the procurement of 100 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines and included $20 billion in the American Rescue Plan for vaccine production and distribution.

“(W)e’re in the life and death race for the virus that is spreading quickly with cases rising again,” Biden said as he stressed the importance of continuing to observe precautions. “New variants are spreading. And sadly, some of the reckless behavior we’ve seen on television over the past few weeks means that more new cases are to come in the weeks ahead ... With vaccines, there’s hope.”

Secondly, the state dropped its insistence for one state-run Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency site in the Delaware Valley.

Last month, the state Department of Health asked Delaware, Bucks, Chester and Montgomery counties to pick one site that would be run by the state and serve all four counties. Officials from these four counties submitted an alternate plan to have one vaccination site in each of the four counties but state officials denied that request, instead telling the counties they could pick two sites of which the state would pick one where 42,000 doses would be administered weekly.

Then, last week, the Pennsylvania Department of Health unexpectedly reversed its decision and adopted the four counties’ plan in which each of the four would be responsible for the large-scale vaccinations in their geographical boundary - a move that is sending the thousands of