With 84K Teachers And Staff Vaccinated, PA Ahead Of Schedule

PENNSYLVANIA — Nearly 84,000 teachers and school employees in Pennsylvania have received their COVID-19 vaccination as of Friday, officials said, putting the state ahead of schedule in its plan to immunize all school staff by the end of the month.

Pennsylvania announced a special plan to vaccinate teachers and all school staff a few weeks ago using the new Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine. A total of 28 mass vaccine sites were established at intermediate units statewide, run by the Pennsylvania National Guard.

"This special vaccination initiative is moving incredibly swiftly thanks to the tremendous work of the intermediate units, school districts, Pennsylvania National Guard, and state agencies," Gov. Tom Wolf said Friday, during a public appearance at the Bucks County Intermediate Unit's clinic. "This has been an incredibly challenging year, and the success of these vaccine clinics is another reminder that Pennsylvanians are rising to the challenge.”

The state originally received 94,600 doses of Johnson & Johnson, and it says that all of those doses will be administered by the end of this weekend. About 13,000 additional doses were shipped in last week, and another 13,000 are expected next week.

The earliest doses were earmarked for teachers who work with special needs students and in high-contact, high-risk environments. Elementary school teachers were next. Many of the intermediate unit clinics have already completed these vaccinations, and have moved forward to vaccinate middle school and high school teachers.

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There are about 200,000 school employees in Pennsylvania, the state estimates, though some number of them may have already received the vaccine if they qualified in 1A.

While an exact date for completion has not been specified, the state estimates that the "vast majority" of school staff who want to be vaccinated will have received their dose by March 31.

That means that the state can move ahead with its plans to begin allocating future Johnson & Johnson doses to both its regional vaccine clinics — which are a point of some controversy — and police, grocery store workers, and other frontline workers in 1B.