Montco mobile vaccine unit has reached 2,000 people

NORRISTOWN >> Montgomery County’s mobile vaccine unit continues to administer first and second COVID-19 vaccine doses to vulnerable elderly residents and officials are looking to expand the program to include other homebound residents.

As of April 21, county health officials working with the mobile unit had administered 1,257 first doses of vaccine and 788 second doses of Pfizer vaccine, according to county data.

“Our goal is to vaccinate everybody who wants to be vaccinated,” county Commissioners’

Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh said during a recent news briefing.

Last week’s pause in the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine did not impact the mobile operation as the county had been scheduled to administer only second doses of the Pfizer vaccine to individuals last week.

“We have never had a problem getting second doses here in the county so we have all of the Pfizer second doses that we require,” Arkoosh said.

Health officials, in coordination with the county Department of Public Safety, launched a mobile vaccination program in March and began taking vaccine to the county’s most vulnerable elderly residents who would otherwise not be able to visit a mass vaccination site.

The program, under the direction of Dr. Alvin Wang, has been serving elderly individuals who live in the 30 congregate senior housing complexes in the county. Each week, the county Office of Public Health is setting aside a portion of vaccine received from the state to supply the mobile vaccination effort.

Once health officials wrap up the vaccination program at congregate settings they plan to use the mobile unit to vaccinate other homebound residents in the county who don’t necessarily resident in congregate settings.

“We have not yet officially started the homebound population. Our team hasn’t gone out, but we are working with some of our partner pharmacies, some of whom are setting up some drive-thru opportunities for homebound seniors. So, we are connecting the seniors on our list, who might be able to get a ride to a place but just can’t get out of a car, to a pharmacy that could be offering that service,” Arkoosh explained last week. “We are doing everything we can to get those individuals vaccinated.”

As of last week the county had about 200 people on its homebound list.

“If you would like to register yourself or a loved one

you can call our hotline and we’ll take all of your information and then we’ll call you back when we’re able to come to you,” Arkoosh explained.

The county’s COVID-19 hotline can be reached at 833-875-3967 and residents will be connected with a volunteer who can assist them in pre-registering for a vaccine.

“The homebound process is a fairly lengthy one because we do need to sit with the individuals for at least 15 minutes, perhaps even longer if they have any complicated medical issues, so the number of people we can do in a day is pretty limited,” Arkoosh explained.

Last week, county health officials had to pause the distribution of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, under federal and state directives, as they awaited the outcome of a review by the federal Centers for Disease Control of 15 reported incidents of rare blood clots that occurred in individuals in the U.S. within two weeks of receiving the J&J vaccine.

However, on Friday, U.S. health advisers urged lifting the 11-day pause in the use of the J&J shot while adding some warnings. The Pennsylvania Department of Health then lifted the J&J vaccine pause allowing all COVID-19 providers in the state to begin administering the vaccine once again.

County officials explained the one-shot J&J vaccine is preferable to vaccinate the homebound population because officials would only have to visit that person’s home once.

“Once we have, we’re hoping, the ability to just go to an individual’s home once with the Johnson & Johnson, then we have plans to have two to three teams out on any given day that would be doing that work. So, we’ll get through it as quickly as we can and we’ll keep going until everybody who would like to be vaccinated is vaccinated,” Arkoosh explained.

Health officials also previously partnered with some pharmacies to vaccinate people experiencing homelessness in the county.

“We were able to do some of those individuals before the pause was put on the J&J,” Arkoosh explained.