County to open new vaccine site Friday

Willow Grove location benefits from increased dose supply

NORRISTOWN >> Montgomery County has received a slight increase in COVID-19 vaccines from the state which will allow local officials to open an additional mass vaccination site in Willow Grove by the end of the week.

“Happily, our supply increased slightly this week. Over the next four weeks, we will receive at least 5,850 doses of Pfizer for our first dose clinics. This is an increase of about 1,000 doses per week. With this increase of vaccine we are ready to open our third mass vaccination site in Willow Grove near the mall. The site will be operational starting this Friday,” county Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh revealed during a news briefing on Wednesday.

“This is welcome news because now everyone who gets an appointment with us will be able to choose the location where they go to receive their vaccine from among the three sites that will be open,” Arkoosh explained. “This, I hope, will make it easier for people to find a location that is the most convenient for them.”

The county Office of Public Health previously opened a vaccination clinic, hosted by the Montgomery County Community College campus in Whitpain, for those receiving their first doses of a vaccine, administering about 1,000 doses each day.

Health officials opened a second clinic at Norristown High School to serve those who had appointments to receive their second doses of the vaccine, also administering about 1,000 second doses a day.

The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses to achieve optimum protection.

With an increase in supply and the opening of a third vaccination site, the county is revising its plan, which will include administering about 1,500 first doses a day.

“Generally speaking, we are going to move to offering 500 first doses a day at each of the three sites. Then all three sites will have capacity for when people are

ready to come back for their second dose, so they’ll come back to that same location,” Arkoosh explained.

The Willow Grove facility, at full capacity, could accommodate about 10,000 shots per day if the county’s supply of vaccine increases.

Appointments are required to receive the vaccine. All those eligible for the vaccine in Phase 1A of the state’s vaccine distribution program can pre-register to receive the vaccine through the county health department. The pre-registration link can be found at www.montcopa.org/COVID-19 under the green vaccination information button.

The state remains in Phase 1A, which includes those 65 and older, health care workers and anyone age 16 to 64 with specific medical conditions.

Residents who don’t have internet access can call the county’s COVID-19 hotline at (833) 875-3967 to connect with a volunteer who can assist them in pre-registering for a vaccine.

As of Wednesday, the county had a waiting list of about 127,000 people currently pre-registered for the vaccine in Phase 1A.

“And that number does continue to grow each day. We will comply with the state’s order. However, with this number of people on our list, at our current vaccine supply, we estimate we will be booking four to five months out for appointments. That is our best estimate, somewhere in the four to five month range, of how long it will take us to get those 127,000 people scheduled,” Arkoosh explained.

If the county’s vaccine supply increases, officials will be able to move through the pre-registration list more quickly.

“So, if people do get appointments, they should keep an eye out for a possible change in that appointment as we get more vaccine. But at this point, we do need to schedule vaccines along the lines of the doses that we have been allocated,” Arkoosh said.

“We continue to communicate to the Pennsylvania Department of Health that we have the capacity to administer higher quantities of vaccine. This includes our Office of Public Health requesting more vaccine each week,” added Arkoosh, who was joined at the news briefing by fellow Commissioner Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr.

For example, this week, the county Office of Public Health requested 10,530 doses of Pfizer vaccine but received only 5,850 doses. For next week, county officials have requested 23,400 doses, the maximum amount allowed to be requested under state rules.

“I want to be clear that the county mass vaccination sites have the capacity to deliver more than 23,400 doses in a week but that was the maximum amount available to be requested. We will find out later this week how many doses we will be approved to receive for next week,” Arkoosh said.

County health officials also have submitted a proposal to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Association to distribute the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine as part of a regional approach proposed by Gov. Tom Wolf and the state’s COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force. Once the state has completed the current task of vaccinating teachers with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, state officials have said the next supply of the vaccine will be made available to regional clinics throughout the state.

“We’re hopeful that we will be able to secure a fair share of this new supply of the J&J vaccine to target frontline workers, first responders and continue to work through our 1A waiting list here in Montgomery County. We will be ready to give it,” Arkoosh said. “We hope to share more details soon.”

In the wake of a decrease in COVID-19 cases statewide and increased vaccinations, the governor, earlier this week, announced a move to ease some restrictions on restaurants and other businesses beginning April 4, including allowing restaurants to resume bar service and increasing dining capacities.

While that is good news, Arkoosh urged residents to continue to abide by all mask wearing and social distancing recommendations that remain in effect.

“All safety orders are still imperative. The importance of this is underscored by the fact that we now have confirmation of 24 cases of the B117 variant in Montgomery County. So this is no time to let up. We still need to be very cautious until we get far, far, greater numbers of individuals vaccinated,” Arkoosh said.

The first case of the more contagious coronavirus variant, which was first identified in the United Kingdom, was identified in the county in January.

Meanwhile, county officials reported 169 daily new cases of the virus on Wednesday, bringing the county’s total number of positive cases to 48,824 since March 7, 2020, when the first two cases of the virus were identified in the county, according to the latest data.

Officials reported no new COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, and the county’s death toll remained at 1,244 since the pandemic began a year ago.