Berks Heim inoculations set; county adds 382 cases
Berks County’s biggest nursing home, Berks Heim, is now scheduled for vaccinations.
Residents and staff of the facility in Bern Township will be receiving the Pfizer vaccine through Walgreens, which will be onsite to administer the vaccine to staff and residents, according to county spokeswoman Stephanie M. Weaver.
The first clinic will be Jan 28-29, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
“This will be first doses, and we have been told there will be about 350 vaccines available each day,” Weaver said Wednesday.
The second clinic will be Feb. 18-19, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
“This will be for second doses and for any first doses not done during January dates (either overflow or later decisions),” she said.
The third clinic will be March 11-12, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, for any remaining second doses.
“Berks Heim has been working diligently to get consent forms and paperwork back from residents and their families and is now working on the same for employees,” Weaver said. “We do not yet have numbers for how many we expect will get the vaccine during the January dates.”
She said there are 274 residents and 450 employees. The facility’s capacity for residents is over 500.
Weaver said the county is working on further plans for inoculations for future populations of the Heim.
The county is not yet aware of how many might refuse a vaccination.
“I believe so far it’s (acceptance) been good, and they (administrators) are hopeful a large percentage will get it,” Weaver said.
Vaccinations
The number of COVID vaccinations administered in Berks County were up to 8,908 on Wednesday, according to the state dashboard.
There have been 832 second doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines administered, and the rest are first doses.
Overall the state was up to 299,954 inoculations. Of those, 42,634 were final doses.
Daily cases
Berks picked up 382 more COVID cases Wednesday in state Department of Health reporting, the second highest daily total this month as the pandemic reached 27,452 cases.
Each new case is a new person testing positive.
Each daily report is a product of statistics from the prior day, except for Monday, which is a report for the prior two days.
It was the seventh consecutive report regarding weekday results that showed at least 300 new cases for Berks.
The seven- and 14-day averages continued to march upward to 325 and 315, respectively. The averages smooth the uneven reporting of test results.
The peaks of each of the averages were 343 and 336, respectively, on Dec. 9 and 16, respectively.
Statewide, there were 7,960 new COVID cases Wednesday, and the pandemic total reached 741,389.
Deaths
The health department reported 349 total COVID deaths for the state on Wednesday, raising the pandemic total to 18,429. Of those, 20 were of Berks residents, and the pandemic total reached 652.
The Berks County coroner’s office added six COVID deaths Wednesday for a pandemic total of 669, now including 33 nonresidents.
Of those six, four were women and the overall age range was 52 to 92. Of the group, one was from Lehigh County and COVID was a contributing cause in one death and the main cause in the others.
For January there have been 78 COVID deaths in Berks, including 35 residents of nursing homes, the coroner reports.
The 33 nonresidents who died in Berks and who are in the coroner’s report will not appear in the state report for the county.
It is known that at least two dozen Berks residents have died outside the county and they appear in the state report and not the coroner’s.
Hospitalizations
Statewide, hospitalizations in the Wednesday report continued an incrementally slow decline, dipping to 5,069.
The Berks component of that total was 226 and included 30 patients in intensive care and 29 on ventilators between Reading Hospital and Penn State Health St. Joseph, according to the state.
Reading Hospital’s own reporting showed the facility was up to 172 patients from 166 and Penn State Health St. Joseph was reporting 51, up 10, for a total of 223.
Both hospitals are off pandemic highs.
Reading had 16 patients in intensive care and 14 on ventilators. St. Joseph had 20 in the ICU and 13 on ventilators.