CDC to send record 500,000 first doses next week

A record 504,340 first doses of the Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have been allotted to Pennsylvania for next week, a 20% increase over this week’s 421,220 doses, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The total includes Philadelphia, which gets its own allocations and deliveries.

The state Health Department reports that more than 290,000 doses from this week’s allotment have already been delivered to 236 vaccination providers outside of Philadelphia.

The half-million doses are in addition to what the Biden administration will send directly to pharmacies in a push to meet the goal of having a vaccination site within 5 miles of every U.S. resident.

The increased flow — and promise of even more to come — will allow Pennsylvania to complete inoculating the 4 million Pennsylvanians in phase 1A, as well as get to the estimated 1 million people in phase 1B next week, and up to 1.7 million in phase 1C beginning April 12, according to acting Health Secretary Alison Beam, who spoke at a virtual news conference Wednesday morning.The latest data from the Philadelphia and state health departments show that close to 5.7 million vaccinations have been administered to about 3.6 million people throughout the state’s 67 counties, accounting for more than 34% of the 16-and-older population that is eligible for vaccination.

More than 2 million people, just shy of one-fifth of those eligible, are fully immunized against COVID-19, and another 1.5 million, more than 14% of those eligible, have received the first of their two required shots.

The Lehigh Valley is faring somewhat better, with 21% of its eligible residents — 115,234 people — fully vaccinated, and an additional 98,670 people — 18% of those eligible — awaiting their second jab.

The state Health Department reported 4,557 additional coronavirus cases Wednesday. The seven-day moving average of newly reported cases was 4,034, up 23% from 3,271 a week ago, and up about 55% over the last 30 days.

To date, there have been 1,024,857 infections statewide since the start of the pandemic.

After a week of having the state’s highest population-adjusted additional cases, Northampton County was supplanted by Wyoming County, which is adding an average of 56 cases per day per 100,000 residents compared with Northampton’s 52. Other counties adding the largest number of additional cases per day include Clearfield, Centre, Monroe and Susquehanna. Lehigh County remains 10th with a rate of 41 cases per day per 100,000 residents.Deaths

The state reported 44 deaths, compared with 34 on Tuesday. The seven-day moving average of deaths per day is 31, compared with 27 a week ago.

There were 2,075 people hospitalized as of midday Wednesday, compared with 1,980 Tuesday. Of those, 211 were on ventilators, and 420 were in intensive care beds. The number of hospitalized COVID19 patients is up 17% over the last week.

There are 156 COVID-19 patients in hospitals in the Lehigh Valley, with 26 of them in intensive care and 14 on ventilators, mostly unchanged since Tuesday.

In the Lehigh Valley, there were 278 additional cases reported, 130 in Lehigh County and 148 in Northampton County. That brings the total to 64,505.

Two new deaths (one each in Lehigh and Northampton counties) bring the total to 1,484, (806 in Lehigh, and 678 in Northampton).

— Eugene Tauber