PA Issues Order To Speed COVID-19 Vaccine Scheduling

PENNSYLVANIA — Pennsylvania issued an order on Thursday in an attempt to speed up its vaccinations of the 1A group, as the end of March deadline it gave itself to move into the 1B category is rapidly approaching. The order mandates that vaccine providers work with Area Agencies on Aging to ensure everyone in 1A has either been vaccinated by the end of March, or scheduled by the end of March.

The order also stipulates that providers can no longer tell residents that no appointments are available. Even if the appointments must be scheduled for the future, they must be able to be booked. Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam said that "it may seem like a daunting task," but was confident the deadline could be met.

The news comes amidst concerns from some counties that the state will move into vaccinating 1B individuals, like police officers and grocery store workers, before all of 1A is completed. The state has made the end of March its goal for shifting the Johnson & Johnson doses from school employees to some of those individuals in 1B, and the hundreds of thousands remaining in 1A statewide surely will not be vaccinated in the few days remaining in the month. Instead, the focus now seems to be on just making sure 1A is scheduled.

But further complicating matters, the state will receive less than a third of the doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine shipment it was expecting next week: just 66,400 instead of 200,000, the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania said during a meeting on Wednesday.

The state does not believe the reduction in doses will cause a delay in their 1A or 1B timelines, or in their plan open up regional mass vaccination sites using some of the Johnson & Johnson allotment.

The exact reason for the decrease in anticipated shipments is unclear, but Department of Health Deputy Press Secretary Maggi Barton told Patch that the state had also seen the flip side of shipment oscillations, when they received more than expected earlier this month.

"The commonwealth recently received unanticipated doses of J&J vaccine over the last two weeks when we were promised zero doses," she said. "Vaccine distributions from the federal government can fluctuate, but we do not anticipate any disruptions in our mission of getting shots into arms."

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The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has, until now, been used exclusively at intermediate sites around the state to vaccinate school employees. The state has said they anticipate completing this mission by the end of March, at which point these doses will be used to vaccinate some members of the 1B priority group, as well as to create more regional-run, mass vaccine clinics.

"Mass vaccination sites and vaccinations for special population are still moving forward," Barton added. "Department of Health continues to work with the Legislative COVID-19 Task Force to strategize the best next steps for this particular vaccine type."

Exact locations for the mass vaccination sites have not yet been confirmed, but Barton said they will be announced in the near future.

In the southeastern part of the state, county leaders and state legislators continue to aggressively advocate against the creation of mass sites in the area, citing the vast inequities they say it will create. On Wednesday, Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh said that the county's Office of Public Safety did recommend two potential sites for the clinic to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. The county did not disclose the locations of these proposed sites, and they continue to argue against the way the state is using these doses.

Specifically, the counties say they should receive the doses directly, and administer them at existing sites, rather than create a single regional site that would require a longer drive time for some residents, as well as create yet another list for residents to put their name on.

"We have been ready and waiting now for weeks," Arkoosh said. "Every drill we've ever done...this is how it was supposed to go. The county sets up the sites, the state provides the vaccine. We're ready to go, and we're still waiting for more doses."

A bipartisan chorus of nine state senators from the region agree, penning a letter this week opposing the state's plan.

"This four-county region is home to nearly 2.5 million residents spread across nearly 2,500 square miles," the letter reads. "There is simply no way that a single vaccination site, no matter how large or how centrally located, could equitably and efficiently provide vaccinations to those who so desperately need them."

The counties and state legislators criticized the state for awarding a lucrative contract to an outside consulting firm, the Boston Consulting Group, who they said the state is listening to instead of the local elected officials actually on the ground.

"I cannot understand the purpose of the $11.6 million dollar contract with a consulting firm for vaccine distribution and yet, here we are, many questions unanswered, incomplete data, and inconsistent information day-to-day," State Sen. Katie Muth said in a statement.

Beyond opposing the regional sites, local officials also say they should be given single dose vaccine shipments to address the most vulnerable 1A populations who still remain unvaccinated, rather than moving ahead into 1B and leaving them behind.

Specifically, they note the homebound, homeless, disabled, and others as among those who could greatly benefit from the convenience of a single dose.

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