Vaccine demand still high in Montco
NORRISTOWN » While demand for COVID-19 vaccines reportedly has slowed in some parts of Pennsylvania, the demand for the shots remains high in Montgomery County, according to officials.
“We actually are pretty busy. I know there has been discussion in other parts of the state that they are not so busy…but we’re not seeing that in Montgomery County,” county Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh said during a news briefing on Wednesday.
“We had an awful lot of pent-up demand here for months while we waited to get more vaccine into this county. I think we’re still working through a lot of people that have been waiting a long
time to be vaccinated and they seem pretty eager to do so. Our clinics are pretty full,” Arkoosh added.
Next week, the county Office of Public Health has about 7,000 vaccine appointments available based on the expected supply of vaccine, and all but about 400 were already filled by Wednesday, according to officials.
“The vast majority of our appointments are booked and we also still have 18,000 people signed up in our system. Those folks have all signed up, for the most part, in the last 10 days or so,” Arkoosh said.
Everyone age 16 and over is now eligible to pre-register for a vaccine.
Last week, county health officials had to pause the distribution of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, under federal and state directives, but are continuing the vaccine rollout with available Pfizer vaccine.
All those who had appointments to receive the J&J vaccine at a county vaccination clinic were contacted and given the opportunity to receive a Pfizer vaccine or to reschedule an appointment.
Currently, the county is distributing only the Pfizer vaccine.
“At this time, we still do not have firm guidance in terms of what to expect in terms of vaccine supply next week,” Arkoosh said.
County officials are awaiting the outcome of a meeting this Friday of the federal Centers for Disease Control’s
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices before making any decision about the future distribution of the J&J vaccine. The advisory committee is still reviewing six reported incidents of rare blood clots that occurred in individuals in the U.S. within two weeks of receiving the J&J vaccine.
“We will await further guidance on this matter,” Arkoosh said. “In the meantime, our team is planning for a variety of scenarios related to our vaccine supply.”
Had the J&J vaccine not been paused, the county would have had more than 16,000 first doses of vaccine available this week. Instead, the county had only 8,190 first doses of the Pfizer vaccine available to distribute this week.
“So, we lost about half our doses this week. We’re still awaiting guidance on when we’ll be able to use the Johnson & Johnson vaccine again and how much supply we will receive each week,” Arkoosh said. “If we are able to resume use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine we will do so as soon as logistically possible and begin to release more appointments. Our goal remains to get as many shots in arms as quickly and as efficiently as possible.”
If federal officials give the green light to the J&J vaccine, the county would be prepared to begin distributing it again at clinics next Wednesday, explained Arkoosh, who was joined at the news briefing by fellow Commissioner Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr.
“If we get Johnson & Johnson back we would have quite a few appointments next week that would then open back up,” Arkoosh said.
Currently, the county Office of Public Health is operating vaccination clinics at the following locations: Norristown Area High School; the Montgomery County Community College campus in Whitpain; the Parkside Shopping Center, in the former Petco location, in Willow Grove; Trinity Lutheran Church, 1000 W. Main St., in Lansdale; and Bethel Community Church, 575 N. Keim St., in Pottstown.
A sixth vaccination clinic is available on Saturdays only at Bethlehem Baptist Church, 712 Penllyn Pike in Spring House.
Hours have varied depending on the supply of vaccine and no walk-up registration is accepted.
“Starting on May 3, we will be moving the locations of two of our clinics to better serve our residents,” Arkoosh revealed.
The clinic currently located at the Montgomery County Community College campus in Whitpain will close on April 30 and move to a location at the Montgomery Mall in Montgomery Township.
Additionally, the clinic currently located at Norristown Area High School will move to a new location at the former JCPenney store at the King of Prussia Mall in Upper Merion.
“All of these locations will be updated in the vaccine registration system and on our website,” Arkoosh explained. “As I said before, eligibility does not quite yet equal availability and we will continue to release appointments as quickly as possible based on our vaccine supply.”
Appointments are required to receive the vaccine. Anyone 16 and older can preregister to receive the vaccine through the county Office of Public Health. The pre-registration link can be found at www.montcopa. org/COVID-19 under the green vaccination information button.
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.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported on Wednesday that 159,090 county residents have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Another 209,421 county residents have received a first dose of vaccine, according to state data, which includes those who have received vaccine through the county health department and at all other locations, such as pharmacies.
The state data indicates that 44.3% of the county’s total population has been either partially or fully vaccinated.
A deeper dive into the numbers reveals that 87.6% of the county’s population over 65 years of age has received either a first or second dose of vaccine.
While the vaccine rollout continues, the number of positive coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continues to increase as the region experiences a spring surge of the virus.
“We still have a lot of cases out there. We have not started to come down. I’m hoping that we are leveling off. Our hospitalizations continue to go up and we’re averaging over 200 cases a day, brand new cases,” said Arkoosh.
“We’re making great progress getting people vaccinated but we don’t have enough people vaccinated yet to be anywhere close to herd immunity, where we might really have true suppression of this virus in our community. So, in the meantime, please be careful,” added Arkoosh, urging residents to continue to abide by all mitigation recommendations including mask-wearing and social distancing.
Health experts believe herd immunity won’t be reached until about 75% of the population is vaccinated.
The 194 daily new positive COVID-19 cases reported in the county on Wednesday brought the county’s total number of positive cases to 55,679 since March 7, 2020, when the first two cases of the virus were identified in the county.
To date, at least 186 of the positive individuals in the county have been identified as carrying one of the coronavirus variants, including 170 who carried the more contagious B117 variant first identified in the United Kingdom. Four cases of the B1427 variant and 11 cases of the B1429 variant, both first detected in California, and one case of the B1526 variant, first detected in New York, have also been identified in the county.
On Wednesday, officials reported three additional deaths from the virus, bringing the county’s death toll to 1,279 since the pandemic began a year ago.
According to the latest county data, the overall 14day COVID-19 positivity rate for the county, as of April 15, was 8.22% which is a slight increase from the 8.12% positivity rate recorded during the previous 14-day period ending April 8.
Health officials believe a positivity rate below 5% indicates a county is suppressing the spread of the virus.
During the period March 19 through April 15, the county’s daily COVID-19 positivity rate fell below 5% on only one day.
The county is currently averaging about 212 new positive cases a day.
“But it does look like we are starting to level off and hopefully if we continue to be careful, we’ll see those numbers start to come down,” Arkoosh said.
There were 228 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the county’s nine hospitals on Wednesday, up from 213 a week ago. Nineteen of the current patients required respirators, according to the latest hospitalization data.
“Our hospitals do remain busy,” said Arkoosh, pointing out that last Oct. 1 there were only 24 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in a county hospital.
“I think we’re still working through a lot of people that have been waiting a long time to be vaccinated and they seem pretty eager to do so.”
- Montgomery County Commissioner Dr. Valerie Arkoosh