Pa. lowers eligibility age in vaccination’s 1st phase
The state Department of Health on Tuesday expanded the group of people first in line to get the COVID-19 vaccine, adding more than a million Pennsylvanians, despite limited supplies of the serum.
The Health Department reduced the age of people in the first wave to 65 from 70 and also added people ages 16 to 64 who have chronic medical conditions. On its website, the Health Department is helping residents determine their eligibility for the shots and directing them to places where they can get the vaccine.
No appointments are being scheduled by the state Health Department. The Allegheny County Health Department is focused on getting front-line health care providers vaccinated before moving on to residents who are ages 75 and older and 65 and older who have specific health conditions, director Debra Bogen said Tuesday.
“Large vaccination clinics, mobile clinics and pop-up events” are being planned for the coming weeks, Dr. Bogen said.
Until now, the initial vaccination phase, known as Phase 1A, had covered residents and staff in long-term care facilities and health care workers.
But expanding the group at the front of the line, which was done to conform to a week-old change in federal guidelines, won’t affect how much COVID-19 vaccine Pennsylvania receives, which has been a “minimal amount,” said Cindy Findley, deputy secretary, health promotion and disease prevention.
“We haven’t received extra vaccine doses,” Ms. Findley said during a briefing Tuesday. “We’re asking all Pennsylvanians to know when is your turn.”
Ms. Findley said 3.5 million people are now eligible for shots statewide in the first phase of vaccinations. There are nearly 1 million Pennsylvanians ages 60 to 70 and an unknown number between the ages of 16 and 64 who are pregnant or have chronic medical conditions such as lung or kidney disease.
“We’ll continue to align with whatever the administration [of President-elect Joe Biden] suggests that we do,” said Ms. Findley. She said Mr. Biden, who will be inaugurated Wednesday, agrees with the 65-and-up standard.
As of Tuesday, there were 57,500 front-line health care workers waiting to be vaccinated in Allegheny County since the vaccine became available in December. The county said its allocations of vaccine, which health officials have not been able to increase, have been fluctuating each week, delaying getting through the first phase of inoculations.
Dr. Bogen, Allegheny County’s health director, said on Tuesday she welcomes the expanded Phase 1A criteria but wondered how effective it would be given the state’s limitations in supplying a vaccine.
“We should be doing everything we can to reach those who are most at risk in our community,” she said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the Health Department’s supply of vaccine — and the supply of vaccine coming into the county to all providers — is still extremely limited and unknown from week to week.
“For the past few weeks, fewer than 20,000 doses of vaccine per week were delivered to health care providers, organizations and pharmacies in the county, not including doses that went to the Federal Pharmacy Partnership to vaccinate in long-term care facilities. Until vaccine supply increases significantly, the Health Department strongly encourages organizations to — and supports those which have already indicated that they will — prioritize vaccinating those most at risk for severe COVID-19 disease.”
The emphasis on prioritizing the most at-risk people limits distribution to those originally put into the Phase 1A category.
“There are still many organizations representing thousands of employees that have contacted the county and are still waiting for the vaccine,” Dr. Bogen said. “The department will continue to coordinate to provide vaccinations at its Monroeville site to meet that need.”
Dr. Bogen said revised plans for an expanded vaccine rollout will be announced “in the coming weeks.” The plans, she said, will “prioritize reaching those residents 75 and older and those 65 and older with specific health conditions through large vaccination clinics, mobile clinics and pop-up events.”
Separately, Allegheny Health Network has begun scheduling COVID-19 vaccinations for people age 75 and older who have had cancer treatment in the past year. Through AHN’s MyChart online platform, people can make reservations for the vaccine and receive the shots at an AHN clinic.
With little guidance from the federal government, each state has designed its own vaccine distribution plan and priority list for people receiving the shots, so there’s no central registry for appointments. Pharmacies and hospital systems have come up with their own online registration platforms.
Pennsylvania has administered one or more doses of vaccine to 380,727 people, or 35% of the 1,075,350 doses received by the state as of Jan. 15, without accounting for reporting delays, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Based on number of vaccine doses administered per 100,000 population, Pennsylvania trails both West Virginia and Ohio in inoculation.
Meanwhile, the Allegheny County Health Department reported 434 new cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths in its daily coronavirus update Tuesday. The county has reported 3,318 new cases over the past seven days, down from 4,942 over the prior seven days.
Statewide, known cases increased by 5,341 on Tuesday, while deaths were up by 77, according to tallies from the state Health Department. New cases reported in the state numbered 43,757 over the last seven days, down from 59,514 over the prior seven days.
Positivity rates — the proportions of those tested who turn up positive for COVID19 — have trended down in Pennsylvania, too, dipping to 12.7% for the Jan. 8-14 period after landing at 15% during the Dec. 25-31 period, according to state data. The state has now recorded 19,467 fatalities attributed to COVID-19 and 777,186 cases since the pandemic began in March.
Reported cases in Allegheny County residents reached 65,114 with the latest county update. Among the newly reported cases Tuesday, 254 are confirmed from 1,205 new PCR tests, and 180 are probable, the county Health Department said.
Those newly reported to be infected range in age from 1 year to 99 years, with a median age of 42. The positive tests included in the update ranged from Jan. 12 to Monday.
The county has reported 1,225 deaths and 3,805 hospitalizations from COVID-19 since March.
As of Tuesday, 413 COVID19 patients were hospitalized in the county, 118 of them in intensive care units and 58 on ventilators, according to state figures. That’s down from a 14-day moving average of 756 hospitalizations on Jan. 1.