Work underway to get shots to school workers
Pennsylvania’s plan to inoculate school staff and child care center workers with the newly approved Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine is moving forward fast and furiously.
During a press briefing Thursday, acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam said an effort to have retail pharmacies provide shots for child care workers had already begun. And mass vaccination sites for school employees will be up and running as soon as March 10.
Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday unveiled the plan to use the state’s allotment of the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine on those working in education. The governor said the idea is to help quickly increase the number of students learning in-person.
Thursday’s briefing provided a bit more information on how the program will work.
Beam said the state is working with Rite Aid, Walmart and Topco to get 30,000 Johnson & Johnson doses into the arms of child care workers.
The state is providing the pharmacies with contact information for licensed child care centers, and the pharmacies will be contacting those centers directly to schedule appointments, Beam said.
That is “starting as soon as today,” she said. The vaccination effort is to get child care centers fully operational.
Vaccinations for school employees are being coordinated through the state’s 28 regional intermediate units, including the Berks County Intermediate Unit.
The intermediate units are surveying the schools they serve to get a handle on how many doses are needed. The vaccine will be distributed based on those numbers, Beam said.
The first round of shots — the state is receiving an initial supply of 94,600 doses separate from the 30,000 for child care workers — will go to those working with prekindergarten, elementary school, special needs, and English-as-asecond language students.
The vaccines will be available for all those working in public and private schools.
Beam said the department has been informed that it will be a few weeks before the state gets a second shipment of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
School employees will get their shots at mass vaccination clinics organized by regional intermediate units. The Pennsylvania National Guard and AMI Expeditionary Healthcare will administer the vaccine at those sites.
Randy Padfield, director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, said during Thursday’s briefing that the sites will be open daily and on weekends to make sure appointments don’t interfere with work schedules.
Each school will receive a schedule of appointments for their employees to sign up for, Padfield said. The sign-ups will be done through an online system.
Padfield said the sites should begin operating between March 10 and 13. Many will be held at regional intermediate school buildings, however some will also be held at alternate, satellite sites or by using a mobile vaccination unit.
The sites will average about 500 vaccinations per day, Padfield said, with some larger ones vaccinating up to 1,000 people per day.
Details on a Berks County site are not yet available.
Acting Secretary of Education Noe Ortega said during Thursday’s briefing that the new vaccination program is “very exciting news for our schools and communities.”
Ortega said that getting school employees vaccinated will get them and students back to where they want and need to be — inside classrooms.
“Our collective priority is to reopen classes and schools as soon as possible,” he said.
Reopening schools will increase learning opportunities for students, Ortega said, and provide better access to the variety of services schools provide. It will also help to jump-start an economy that has been hit hard by the pandemic.
However, Ortega said, the state is not planning to mandate that schools reopen once teachers are vaccinated. He said that is the state’s recommendation, but the final decision rests with local school leaders.
Impact on others
Beam said Thursday, as Wolf did Wednesday, that the plan to vaccinate school employees is not being done at the expense of the state’s ongoing vaccination program.
She said that by using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the program can take place without interrupting the regular flow.
Beam said that since December more than 1.5 million Pennsylvanians have received their first dose of the two-shot Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, and nearly
830,00 are now fully vaccinated.
But many are still struggling to get access.
Several times during Thursday’s briefing Beam acknowledged the frustrations of people eligible to get a shot under the Phase
1A qualifications who have been unable to schedule an appointment.
“We know that the demand for these vaccines are currently greater than the supply,” she said.
Beam said the state is now receiving more doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, but the supply still can’t keep up with the demand.
“There is still not enough vaccine for everyone that wants it right now, but the situation is improving,” she said. “We urge folks to have patience.”