Gov. Wolf Tours Bucks County Vaccine Site

DOYLESTOWN, PA — While state and local officials in the four suburban Philadelphia counties continue to criticize what they believe to be a slow rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. Tom Wolf said the state is doing better than ever at getting vaccine doses in the arms of Pennsylvanians.

The governor toured the Bucks County Intermediate Unit on Friday in part to highlight his administration's effort to vaccinate teachers and school employees in Pennsylvania.

The governor's planned visit to Doylestown came on the heels of a recent trip to the IU site in Berks County, which is also vaccinating teachers with the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine as more school districts open for in-person instruction.

It also came the same day the Centers for Disease Control announced that students in masks only need to stay three feet apart, news that is expected to accelerate the return of children to classrooms.

The Bucks County IU recently became one of the first of 28 regional education agencies in the state to be turned into a vaccination clinic for school workers and employees.

"The collective response to COVID-19 from Bucks County's education community has been, in a word, amazing," Bucks County IU Executive Director Mark Hoffman said. "For the last eight days, these conference rooms have buzzed again. They've been alive with energy and excitement as thousands of Bucks County educators and contractors — we'll be approaching 9,000 this weekend — have passed through our vaccination clinic."

But the governor continues to face criticism for the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. Elected officials in four southeast Pennsylvania counties, including Bucks, issued a joint statement Thursday expressing their disappointment that the Pennsylvania Department of Health is opening a mass vaccination site to administer the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in southeast Pennsylvania, which they believe will take needed doses away from local authorities .

“We have reiterated our concerns about establishing a regional PEMA (Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency) site for many reasons and we remain deeply concerned that equitable distribution will be compromised at such a site,” the statement read.

Related: State Plans Southeast PA Mass Vaccination Site Despite Pushback

Gov. Wolf responded Friday by saying that both counties and the state can work in tandem to ensure all Pennsylvanians have access to the vaccine.

"We have to look at how well Pennsylvania is doing," Wolf said. "What we're seeing here is an example of when we work together, we can actually do some pretty amazing things."

More than 2.6 million people have been partially vaccinated and more than 1.4 million have been fully vaccinated in Pennsylvania as of Friday afternoon, according to the state department of health. The total makes up about one-third of the state's population.

Of those who have been vaccinated, nearly 84,000 are teachers and school employees in Pennsylvania.

For more information about getting a coronavirus vaccine in Pennsylvania, visit Patch's information hub.

Be the first to know what's happening in your town and area. Sign up to get Patch emails and don't miss a minute of local and state news: https://patch.com/subscribe