Pa. to get all three vaccines

For the first time, three FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine formulations are included in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s list of weekly allocations to states, cities and territories.

Pennsylvania will be able to order 384,290 first doses this week. The number combines Philadelphia, which is a separate CDC jurisdiction, with the 66 counties administered by the state Health Department.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses spaced three and four weeks apart, respectively. The newly sanctioned Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only one dose. It can be stored for weeks at regular refrigerator temperatures, making it easier to use in neighborhood pharmacies and rural health clinics that don’t typically have cryogenic freezers.

The J&J vaccine, developed by its Janssen subsidiary in Belgium, has shown 100% effectiveness in preventing people from being hospitalized or dying from COVID. It is 85% effective in preventing severe coronavirus disease. Early data indicates that the J&J vaccine is more effective against the British variant of the virus than it is against the South African variant. The CDC predicts that the British variant, known as B.1.1.7 by virologists, will become the dominant strain in the United States this month.

The 384,000 doses will be delivered directly to vaccination providers once the state and Philadelphia health departments submit their orders to the CDC.

Almost 500 providers have put over 2.8 million shots in 1.9 million arms throughout all 67 counties. That amounts to 18.5% of the 16-and-older population that is eligible for the Pfizer vaccine. The other two are approved for adults only, although clinical trials are underway to verify their safety for children.

About 22% of Lehigh Valley residents, or more than 122,000 people, are at least partially immunized against COVID. There have been 185,652 vaccinations administered to residents of the two counties.

The state Health Department reported 2,564 additional coronavirus cases Tuesday. The seven-day moving average of newly reported cases was 2,569, down 3% from 2,659 a week ago. To date, there have been 935,834 infections statewide since the start of the pandemic in March of last year.

The state reported 74 deaths. There were 1,670 people hospitalized as of midday Tuesday. Of those, 354 were in intensive care beds. There are 190 patients on ventilators, marking the first that measure dipped below 200 in about four months.

Hospitals in the Lehigh Valley reported 157 COVID-19 patients, with 19 intensive care patients and 14 on ventilators.

In the Lehigh Valley, there were 200 additional case reports, 86 in Lehigh County and 114 in Northampton County. That brings the total to 57,866, with 30,897 in Lehigh County and 26,969 in Northampton.

The region had 11 new deaths (seven in Lehigh County, and four in Northampton County), compared with two the day before. That brings the total to 1,416, (768 in Lehigh, 648 in Northampton).

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