Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Infusion
vaccines to this region of the commonwealth.
That reversal juxtaposes the reality of Delaware County in February when the county was receiving 1,000 doses a week - and one week received no doses at all - even as vaccine doses were sent to other parts of the state.
For months, Delaware County officials have been prepared to distribute vaccine.
The county has been administering the vaccine at the Delaware County Wellness Center in Yeadon, the Aston Community Center, the Keystone First Wellness Center in Chester, Penn Medicine at Radnor and Springfield Hospital.
In mid-February, county officials unveiled a comprehensive plan to vaccine dissemination, once doses were received here en masse.
“The increased supply promised by Acting Secretary Beam will enable us to open our long-planned community-based mass vaccination site, which we will operate in addition to our five county-based vaccination sites that are already operating at full-capacity and have been doing an amazing job for months,” county Councilwoman Elaine Paul Schaefer said.
Plans included that the county Wellness Center, the Aston Community Center, Keystone First Wellness Center and Springfield Hospital could be expanded to provide shots 12 hours a day, seven days a week with the use of county employees, contractors and hundreds of Medical Reserve Corps volunteers.
Sites identified that could provide 3,125 shots a weekend included Garnet Valley High School, Ridley Park High School, Upper Darby High School and Radnor High School. More than 3,000 shots have already been distributed at Upper Darby High School in multiple pop-up vaccination efforts during weekends in March.
Other potential locations included the Upland Municipal Center, which is anticipated to be able to provide 600 doses per week, and possibly the Delaware County Community College, where 10,000 doses could be provided over a weekend. Neither site has been activated for this large-scale distribution yet.
Hundreds of Medical Reserve Corps volunteers have been trained and have been ready to assist the county with this effort.
“County council is confident we’re up to the task at hand, and we are so grateful for the amazing work being done by our COVID-19 Task Force, Delaware County Emergency Services, the Delaware County Medical Reserve Corps and the Citizen Corps and their thousands of volunteers, not to mention the various departments and agencies that have helped us already vaccinate tens of thousands of people here in the County,” council Vice Chairman Dr. Monica Taylor said.
On Friday, the state Department of Health reported that 152,579 Delaware County residents had received their first dose and that 79,638 county residents had received both doses, making them fully vaccinated against COVID-19. There are more than 560,000 residents in Delaware County.
Also as of Friday, 42,148 county residents had tested positive for coronavirus and 1,346 had died as a result. A recovery rate of 90.3 percent had been reported.
County officials were grateful for the vaccines and the impact it can have in Delaware County.
“This is a turning point. We appreciate that the Pennsylvania Department of Health was willing to listen to our needs and trust our medical countermeasures plans,” county Councilman Kevin Madden said, “and we are grateful to our legislative delegation for advocating for this result.”