Largest shipment of vaccine coming
More than 440K doses arriving in Pa. this week
As COVID-19 cases rise across the state, the Pennsylvania Health Department announced Tuesday that this week’s shipment of COVID-19 vaccine doses would be the largest it has received so far.
Pennsylvania will receive 443,310 first doses of vaccine from the federal government, senior adviser Lindsey Mauldin said at a Tuesday morning
news conference. That amount excludes Philadelphia, which gets its own allotment each week. Together, the state and Philadelphia will receive 504,000 first doses, a 20% increase over the previous week.
Pennsylvania transitioned to phase 1B of its vaccine rollout Monday, expanding eligibility to many essential workers, those experiencing homelessness, and those living or working in group homes. On April 12, the state will transition to phase 1C, opening eligibility to more essential workers, and on April 19, everyone 16 and older will become eligible for the vaccine in accordance with a sped-up vaccination schedule from President Joe Biden.
Mauldin said whether or not the allocations of doses are available to vaccinate everyone who is eligible, the state wants as many people as possible setting appointments for the vaccine.
The increased supply comes as the number of new cases of COVID-19 rise. In Pennsylvania, the number of new cases per day peaked in December and began to decline before plateauing around mid-February. However, in mid-March, cases began to rise again throughout the state, as well as in the Lehigh Valley.
On March 1, the seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases was 2,607 per day, but by the beginning of April, the average had risen to 4,050 new cases per day.
Mauldin said that since the beginning of the pandemic last March, 14.3 million COVID-19 tests have been reported to the Health Department. With cases rising, Mauldin said, testing is as vital as ever.
“Despite the number of cases rising, we’re seeing the demand for testing decrease. We need to redouble our efforts to increase the use of testing, even as we ramp up the vaccination process,” Mauldin said.
Mauldin said the state is looking to expand options for testing, including through its partnership with AMI Expeditionary Healthcare, which began in September and has allowed for expanded testing in 61 of the state’s 67 counties. She said that from December to March, AMI conducted 9,941 tests in the Northeast Region of the state, and 41,250 tests statewide. The state extended its contract with AMI so it can perform more targeted testing and add long-term testing sites.
Mauldin also said a number of over-the-counter testing options have been approved for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which she said increases access to testing. The state will next prioritize testing initiatives at K-12 schools, she said.
Mauldin also acknowledged known cases of the COVID-19 variants. She said there have been 661 known cases of the U.K. and the South African variants in Pennsylvania. However, the Health Department does not have the ability to do the sequencing to determine if a coronavirus specimen is a variant, so the known cases do not represent the true spread of variants across the state.