With 10K Doses Incoming, Montco Expects To Complete 1A In A Month

NORRISTOWN, PA —Montgomery County's increased allocations of the COVID-19 vaccine will allow them to soon complete the immunization of the remaining individuals in the 1A group, they said Wednesday. The tens of thousands of individuals remaining in that group could be vaccinated in as soon as a month.

This is in large part due to a series of policy shifts from the state, in the wake of new announcements from President Biden this week. Specifically, no state-run regional mass vaccine clinic is coming to southeastern Pennsylvania, as had been initially planned. Instead, the southeastern counties will directly receive increased shipments of doses, as they had requested.

"This will enable us to significantly accelerate the remaining individuals in 1A," Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh said. "I breathed a huge sigh. of relief when I got the news today...We have conveyed in every way we knew how that our constituents needed vaccine."

It marks a dramatic turnaround from just a week ago, when the county said that at the current rate, it could take four to five months to complete 1A.

Montgomery County is slated to receive about a 25 percent portion, or 10,500 doses, of the state's allocation of 42,000 Johnson & Johnson doses. Bucks, Chester, and Delaware counties will also receive an equal quarter share of those doses. A similar shipment is expected to be received on a weekly basis into the future.

That's on top of the 6,000 doses the county is already receiving per week, plus President Biden's increased shipments that are getting sent directly to pharmacies.

"That should let us get through that 1A list in about a month," Arkoosh said. "A month from now, we should be in pretty good shape, and be able to start into other groups in the county."

RELATED: PA Expediting Vaccine Timeline; All Eligible By April 19

The state is moving into 1B appointments on Thursday, and appointments for the general public will be available by April 19, officials said.

County officials said that they don't know exactly when the first shipment of these 10,000 additional doses will arrive, "but it will be fairly soon," she said.

All told, the county still has 75,171 remaining on the 1A wait list. A total of 156,557 appointment notifications have been sent out.

The county has partially vaccinated 156,064 and fully vaccinated 97,515, or a total of 253,579 that have received at least one dose. That is 37.6 percent of the total eligible population, over the age of 16.