Montgomery County Vaccine Updates: Regional Site, Ethnicity Info

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — Montgomery County now has three open and running community mass vaccine clinics, in Norristown, Blue Bell, and Willow Grove. But they have not received nearly enough doses from the state to maximize this available infrastructure, they said.

Meanwhile, case rates have been increasing across the county and the state, with the percent positivity rate going up from 4.8 to 5.7 percent.

All told, the county has given 148,169 partial vaccinations and 94,306 full vaccinations.

Here are the latest vaccine updates from around the county.

County needs more doses, has unused capacity

Discontent continues to simmer at the county level with the Pennsylvania Department of Health, as Montgomery County does not have enough vaccine doses to maximize its infrastructure. Nor have they received what they believe is their fair share of allocations. MORE.

Pop up clinic vaccinates thousands

For the second week in a row, Skippack Pharmacy vaccinated thousands of local residents at a pop-up clinic at North Penn High School. Organizers estimated more than 3,000 were vaccinated Sunday, and roughly 3,000 were vaccinated last weekend. 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 Montgomery County, as well as a bipartisan contingent of state legislators. MORE.

Residents urged to self-identify

Montgomery County is urging residents to self-identify their demographic information like race and ethnicity when they receive the COVID-19 vaccine, as part of an effort to ensure equity in immunizations. Thus far, roughly about one in six of all individuals who have received a vaccine through the county have declined to provide their information, or nearly 33,000 individuals. MORE.

County ordered to schedule all of 1A by end of March

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 all vaccine providers in Montgomery County (and around the state) 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. The county says they will comply, but that it will be months before these appointments actually take place. MORE.

Montgomery County 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.

Where you're at in line

To see roughly where you stand in line, you can reference the date you registered with the county's numbers showing daily registrations every day since late-January. The number of people who signed up before you are the number of people ahead of you in line. The county is working through registrations made on Jan. 31. MORE.

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