Gov. Wolf Announces Vaccine Order To Expedite 1A Scheduling

PENNSYLVANIA — Officials in Pennsylvania expressed optimism Friday that they will be able to meet President Biden's recently announced timeline that would make everyone in the state eligible to receive a vaccine by May 1.

As part of that plan, the Department of Health will issue an order Friday mandating that providers must schedule appointments for the entire 1A priority category — which includes everyone 65 and older — by March 28. This comes after weeks of delays and frustrations over the vaccine rollout plan in the state, as tens of thousands of individuals in the 1A category are still sitting in long wait lines for their appointment.

"We are taking aggressive steps to meet that deadline, and we're confident that we can do that," Gov. Tom Wolf said during a news briefing Friday.

Wolf called Biden's plan "really bold" and pointed to "significant growth" in the state's vaccine supply that will only increase in coming weeks, allowing the state to meet these objectives.

RELATED: Police, Grocery Store Workers Can Soon Receive Vaccine In PA

Officials announced several steps that will help them expedite the timeline. Most notably, once the state finishes vaccinating all school employees, which they say they're on track to do by the end of March, they will redirect Johnson & Johnson doses to "special vaccine initiatives."

Specifically, the doses will be used to vaccinate law enforcement, firefighters, grocery store workers, and other essential workers, including many of the individuals in the 1B category.

The doses will also be allocated to regional vaccination clinics. Roughly 200,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are expected weekly starting March 28.

Alongside the federal government, the state plans to set up 27 federal vaccine program sites in the coming weeks. Four have already opened, including three in Philadelphia and one in Lycoming County.

RELATED: PA On Track To Vaccinate All School Staff By End Of March

The state is also working with the counties to get ready to open more regional mass vaccination clinics, community vaccination clinics, and mobile clinics as more doses become available.

Wolf said the bipartisan legislative task force on the vaccine, which creates policy recommendations for the rollout, was in close communication with county commissioners on these plans.

“We know that county leaders and emergency management organizations have been working hard to put plans in place and make preparations for vaccination sites in their communities,” Wolf said.

Earlier Friday, the state said that they had vaccinated 6,500 teachers thus far, and that 240,000 school employees had responded to the registration questionnaires sent out by intermediate units responsible for organizing their vaccinations.

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