42 Percent Of Eligible Montco Population Now Vaccinated

NORRISTOWN, PA — After weeks of struggling with a shortage of vaccine, Montgomery County is making swift progress in administering doses. This week, the county received twice of its expected shipment of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine — 21,000 instead of the expected 10,500 — and all of their 1A group has now been contacted to sign up for an appointment.

This comes after months of hundreds of thousands of residents sitting in a wait line that grew to some 200,000 residents deep, as the county said that the state was shortchanging the southeastern part of the state in allocations. The state denied the charge, but shifts in policy last week have brought a dramatic increase in doses to the region.

"We want to encourage people to register," Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh said. "This large number of vaccine is going to allow us to move through our list fairly quickly. So people might be quite pleasantly surprised, if they register this week, they might get an appointment fairly soon."

The double-shipment of Johnson & Johnson was for this past week only; future shipments will be 10,500, in addition to the existing weekly shipment of 5,860 Pfizer doses.

Now that all of Phase 1A has been contacted, Phase 1B will start to be scheduled. Pre-registration for 1B opened this past Monday.

"I'm cautiously optimistic that we might be able to start giving 1B shots later this week or early next week," Arkoosh said.

Meanwhile, 1C will open for pre-registration next Monday, April 12, while the general public will receive the vaccine April 19.

Thus far, a total of 58,794 first doses have been administered, and 36,156 second doses. That means 42.8 percent of the eligible population in the county, which is everyone 16 and over, has now received at least one dose.

There is a new registration system on Montgomery County's website which prevents line-jumping, officials say. You can access it here.