Wolf: Wrap up phase 1A by end of March
Effort to vaccinate police, firefighters, others will follow inoculation of school workers
HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday said his administration ordered COVID-19 vaccine providers to make “best efforts” for everyone in phase 1A who wants a shot to either get one, or be scheduled for one, by the end of March.
Phase 1A covers more than 4 million people, including health care workers, long-term care residents and everyone ages 65 and older. Wolf said more than 3 million people in the phase already have received a first dose of vaccine.
Wolf said the administration would help providers finish phase 1A by giving “greater visibility” into future vaccine allocations.
“This will allow them to schedule appointments with confidence in having sufficient supply to keep those appointments,” he said.
The 1A effort is being carried out with two-dose vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna. Wolf also outlined a new initiative for the third vaccine, a one-dose version made by Johnson & Johnson.
In Pennsylvania, that vaccine is dedicated solely to teachers, education workers and childcare workers.
Wolf said Friday that when that group is finished, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be used for regional vaccination clinics and for “special initiatives” to vaccinate specific groups. They will include law enforcement, grocery workers, corrections officers, career and volunteer firefighters, and meat processing and agriculture workers.
The start of that new approach, Wolf said, is at least two weeks away. Hence, he said he could not say exactly how and where workers in those special initiative groups would get their shots.
Concerning the regional clinics, Wolf said counties would be encouraged to collaborate in their respective parts of the state to make proposals. The proposed clinics, he said, could be in the form of mass vaccination clinics, community vaccination clinics, mobile clinics or other strategies “to vaccinate their region’s currently eligible individuals.”
A joint legislative/administration COVID-19 task force — whose members appeared at the Friday news conference with Wolf — will screen the proposals.
Pennsylvania performance
Vastly different pictures of how Pennsylvania is doing in the vaccine race compared to other states were painted by Wolf and task force member Rep. Timothy O’Neal of Washington County.
Wolf is a Democrat and O’Neal is a Republican.
Wolf cited a Friday national media report that said the national average for getting first doses out to populations was 19%, and Pennsylvania’s figure was 19.8%. Hence, Wolf said, “Pennsylvania is now above the national average.”
O’Neal, though, said it was a positive fact that as of Thursday, Pennsylvania ranked 38th in the nation for the percentage of vaccines administered, compared to the amount received.
“As many are aware, we have been ranked in the 40s since the beginning of the vaccine rollout,” O’Neal said. “Although 38 still isn’t good enough, 38 is on the way to where we want to be.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, meanwhile, showed that while Pennsylvania ranked sixth in the nation in the raw number of doses administered — with 3.7 million — the state ranked 39th in doses administered per 100,000 residents, with 29,363.
Close to finish
Wolf said many virus-monitoring statistics continue to improve, but some remain “at a level that is too high.”
Before a final lifting of mitigation measures, Wolf said he wanted to reach a point where there would be no renewed surge of the virus. Reopening the state, he said, should be done quickly, but safely.
“We are within striking distance of the finish line,” he said.
Earlier in the day, other state officials said more than 240,000 surveys were sent to get the teacher-vaccination effort started, and 28 state intermediate units are at the core of the effort.
Acting Secretary of Education Noe Ortega and Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency Director Randy Padfield said 10 IU teacher-vaccination sites were open by Thursday. Ten more were to open Friday and the rest over the weekend, they said.
Padfield said about 6,500 shots have already been given to the group involving teachers, education workers and childcare workers.
In other developments, state officials encouraged long-term care facilities across the state to adopt new guidance on visits to their facilities, issued by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Among other things, the officials said, the guidance allows for fully vaccinated residents to have close contact with visitors “while wearing a well-fitting mask.”
And, the guidance emphasizes that “compassionate care” visits — such as end-of-life situations — should be allowed at all times regardless of vaccination status, virus positivity rates, or outbreak status.