All Pa. adults eligible for vaccination today
Appointments open up in the Lehigh Valley
HARRISBURG — The Wolf administration on Monday said that starting Tuesday, all Pennsylvania adults may schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments, and the state has set a goal of getting 80% of eligible adults vaccinated.
Previously, the state’s timetable set April 19 for opening vaccine scheduling to all adults.
The expedited timetable was supported by a bipartisan task
force of lawmakers. Officials said it was prompted by an increase in unfilled vaccine appointment slots statewide, and Lehigh Valley providers verified they were experiencing a slowdown in demand.
“We need to maintain acceleration of the vaccine rollout, especially as case counts and hospitalization rates have increased,” Gov. Tom Wolf said. “Therefore, just as President Biden has brought forward universal adult access to vaccines from May 1 to April 19, we are moving Pennsylvania’s timeline of universal adult access to April 13.”
At a news conference in Harrisburg, meanwhile, acting Health Secretary Alison Beam said the state hoped to reach a “critical mass” of 80% of eligible adults being vaccinated — even though the administration would prefer everyone who is eligible get a shot.
Concerning the hastened arrival of Phase 2 — the “all adults” phase of the rollout — Beam said providers were having trouble filling open appointment slots, and the state wanted to keep demand high.
“We heard it from regions across the state. This wasn’t just from one localized area,” Beam said. “We realized that the need to keep demand at its highest propensity possible was incredibly important, and so that is why we have progressed to Phase 2.”
The change, she said, will allow a better chance for college students to complete two-dose regimens before leaving campus for the summer.
Lehigh Valley situation
Vicky Kistler, director of the Allentown Health Bureau, said it is taking longer for vaccine appointment slots to fill.
“We used to find if we posted a link, within an hour to two hours every appointment was taken,” she said. “Now we are finding if we post a link, the link may remain live with some available appointments for three, four, sometime six hours.”
Clinics, she said, continue to fill up, but the bureau has seen an increase in no-shows to vaccine appointments.
Kistler suspected it is so-called “vaccine shopping,” where people book appointments at multiple vaccination sites to find the best option.
The worst day for no-shows so far was when 88 people, or roughly 8% of the day’s scheduled patients, didn’t show up for their appointments, according to Kistler.
Sam Kennedy, a spokesperson for St. Luke’s University Health Network, said it has started to see pockets of “vaccine saturation,” where it is possible most individuals who want and are eligible for the vaccine have received it.
Brian Downs, a spokesperson for Lehigh Valley Health Network, said vaccine doses are more plentiful than earlier in the vaccine rollout and the health network has seen more appointments left open lately. He also said LVHN has had a number of no-shows, which he attributed to vaccine shoppers.
Downs said that to make sure the
system continues to meet demand, vaccine clinics in hospitals have been moved to larger locations in Whitehall and Lower Nazareth Township.
‘A tipping point’
Beam said supply previously was the big challenge in the state’s vaccine rollout.
Now, she said, “we are reaching a tipping point in Pennsylvania, whereby the supply — while we still need more at this stage — it is going to require us being more convincing of folks.”
Beam said one example of that sort of effort is the statewide mobile vaccination and education unit unveiled at the news conference at the Beacon Clinic. The unit will go into minority communities and other areas where residents have trouble accessing health care.
Besides giving shots, the unit’s staff will work against “vaccine hesitancy.”
“It is through education that more
individuals that have questions will be able to better understand how the COVID-19 vaccines were developed on such an expedited timeline,” Beam said.
George Fernandez, founder and CEO of the Latino Connection, said the unit will get vaccine into the heart of communities that need it.
“In order to solve health care inequality and reach our vulnerable and underserved communities, we need to meet our people where they are,” Fernandez said.
On Feb. 12, with the state’s vaccine rollout mired in problems, Beam announced that only the most efficient vaccine providers — including hospitals, health systems, federally qualified health centers, county health departments and pharmacies — would get vaccine.
Currently, there are about 2,800 providers registered to give shots, but only 230 are getting vaccine.
On Monday, Beam said that would change.
“We will be expanding who actually gets vaccine, and we really are eager to have folks be able to access the vaccine where it probably is most comfortable for them, which at times could be their primary care physician,” Beam said.
The Health Department website displays a map of vaccine providers across the state.
Pennsylvania’s performance compared with other states in rolling out vaccines continues to improve, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
On Feb. 22, Pennsylvania ranked 40th among states with 18,419 doses administered per 100,000 people. By Wednesday, that rank improved to 22nd, with 53,137 doses given per 100,000 people.
And Monday, the state ranked 20th, with 59,051 doses given per 100,000 people.
Task force support
In early February — when the state’s vaccine rollout was under heavy criticism — Wolf announced a legislative task force would work with the administration on vaccine issues, and it would include lawmakers from both parties.
On Monday, those lawmakers — Sen. Art Haywood, D-Montgomery; Sen. Ryan Aument, R-Lancaster; Rep. Timothy O’Neal, R-Washington; and Rep. Bridget Kosierowski, D-Lackawanna — were in support of the new timetable that opened up vaccines to all adults.
“Please get vaccinated,” Haywood said in a news release, and Aument said “rapid progress” in the rollout made the speed-up possible.
Aument, like Beam, said the fact that college students would now be able to get vaccinated at school before returning home for the summer is a big positive.
Kosierowski said the administration and task force, working together, achieved a vaccine timing goal set by Biden.
O’Neal said that in his half of the state, vaccine supply has outstripped demand at recent vaccine clinics.
“It only makes sense to open vaccinations to all,” O’Neal said.