PA Vaccine Updates: Shipments Reduced, Regional Clinics Planned

PENNSYLVANIA — The state continued to receive increased shipments last week as more and more residents receive a COVID-19 vaccine. But plenty of hurdles remain, and the state did see a significant snag in its expected upcoming shipments.

Case rates also increased across the state over the past week. The percent positivity rate on tests rose from 5.7 to 6.5 percent, and the total number of cases rose from 12,802 new cases to 14,182.

Officials and health experts point to several factors, including possible "pandemic fatigue" leading to relaxed safety precautions, as well as the presence of new and more contagious variants of coronavirus.

Thus far, the state has partially vaccinated 3,068,295 people, and fully vaccinated 1,660,232 as of Friday afternoon. That's a total of 4,728,527, or over a third of the state's population.

Here are the latest updates on the vaccine across Pennsylvania:

Less Johnson & Johnson expected

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 Department of Health does not believe it will disrupt their timeline, or plans to use the single dose vaccine to open regional clinics. MORE.

State moving forward with southeastern vaccine site

Pennsylvania is continuing to plan to open a state-run mass vaccine clinic in the southeastern part of the state, directly against the wishes of the leaders in all of those counties, as well as a bipartisan contingent of state legislators. MORE.

Southeast compares state rollout to "The Hunger Games"

Frustrated officials in the southeastern part of the state continue to say they're not receiving their fair of vaccine, a contention to the Department of Health says is false. "We are incredibly frustrated," Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh said, noting that the county has significant unused capacity to administer many. more doses. MORE.

Bucks clinic forced to close due to coming regional site

Lower Bucks Hospital in Bristol will have to close their vaccine clinic due to the state's decision to allocate future doses to a regional site. The county and hospital are pushing back. MORE.

Order issued to expedite 1A scheduling

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. MORE.

Latest on timeline

The state continues to say that 1A will be scheduled by the end of March, and all school employees will be vaccinated by the end of March.

Vaccinations for police officers, grocery store workers, and certain other frontline workers in the 1B category will begin at the end of the month as well.

The current goal is for the vaccine to be available to the general public in Pennsylvania by May.

PA biopharmaceutical company developing vaccine to fight variants

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, based in Plymouth Meeting, has been bypassed by other companies like Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna in bringing their medicine to market. But Inovio is continuing work on its unique DNA inoculation which they're now hopeful can be used to stop variants of coronavirus, both known and unknown. MORE.

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