LVHN to close COVID-19 vaccine clinics

Shots will be available in doctors’ offices

Effective Feb. 3, Lehigh Valley Health Network will officially close its five COVID-19 vaccine clinics, including the Pottsville location, as well as the network’s Mobile Vaccination Unit.

Initial vaccine doses for people 6 months and older and booster shots for people 5 years of age and older will be available at all Lehigh Valley Physician Group primary care (internal medicine, family medicine and pediatrics) practices. Scheduling for COVID-19 vaccines at these practices will open over the next two weeks.

A majority of the vaccines available will be Pfizer-BioNTech; individuals will not be able to request the specific brand they want to receive. The Novavax vaccine will no longer be available at any LVHN facilities.

The community clinics were established in spring 2021 to provide easy access to COVID-19 vaccinations. Since December 2020 when the vaccines first became available, LVHN has administered over 620,000 shots (including primary doses and boosters) to adults, teens and children throughout the region, according to network officials.

Initial vaccine doses and boosters will be given during specific vaccination appointments or as part of yearly physical or sick/problem visits (as long as the patient is not experiencing symptoms of COVID-19). While most LVPG primary care practices will be offering vaccine appointments starting Feb. 6, some practices may not have doses of the vaccines until later in the month.

Appointments can be scheduled with an individual’s LVPG practice by calling the person’s LVPG primary care physician’s office or by logging in to their MyLVHN account, which is the network’s patient portal

Similar to other vaccinations at LVPG practices, an administration fee will be billed to patients’ insurance policies after they have received their shot.

If an individual wants to receive their initial vaccine series or booster through LVHN but is not a current patient, call 888-402-LVHN (5846) to make a new patient appointment. Alternatively, the initial vaccine series and boosters are available at retail pharmacies throughout the region.

Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) includes 13 hospital campuses — two in Pottsville four in Allentown, two in Bethlehem, one in Easton, one in East Stroudsburg, one in Hazleton, one in Dickson City and one in Lehighton. It runs 28 health centers, numerous primary and specialty care physician practices; 20 ExpressCARE locations; pharmacy, imaging, home health, rehabilitation and lab services; and preferred provider services through Valley Preferred.

Additional information is available by visiting LVHN. org or following the network on Facebook , Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.