Four Chesco Hospitals Receiving Vaccine Doses This Week

CHESTER COUNTY, PA — Four Chester County hospitals are on the list to receive and distribute doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine this week.

Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine announced on Monday that Pennsylvania would receive 97,500 vaccine doses this week to be distributed at 83 hospitals across the state.

In Chester County, vaccine doses will go to Chester County Hospital-Penn Medicine in West Chester, Brandywine Hospital, Jennersville Hospital in West Grove, and Phoenixville Hospital, all Tower Health hospitals.

Patch awaits reports from hospital officials saying how many doses of Pfizer's vaccine are expected at each hospital location. This story will be updated when the information is provided.

Jennersville Hospital is located near Chester County's two communities with the highest COVID-19 case concentration per the population; Avondale Borough and Kennett Square Borough, both with more than 5 percent of their population having tested positive for COVID-19 as of Dec. 14. Avondale has had 78 positive cases, Kennett Square, 318.

Brandywine Hospital in Coatesville is located near the next two highest case concentrations in Chester County; South Coatesville Borough and the City of Coatesville, whose percentage of positive COVID-19 cases is just under 5 percent. South Coatesville reports 67 cases, and the City of Coatesville has had 595 cases reported.

Another shipment of the Pfizer vaccine is expected next week, but exact amounts are not yet known, Levine said. That's in addition to the more than 13,000 doses Philadelphia will receive through its own vaccination plan.

The first deliveries of the vaccine have already arrived in some places, including at the UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh in Lawrenceville.

But Levine said it will be several months before enough of the vaccine is available to the general public. She said it "might be spring into summer" before everyone in Pennsylvania who wants a vaccine can get it. She reminded residents of the importance of continuing with the public mitigation measures, including wearing a mask and social distancing.

Levine said if the Moderna vaccine is approved in the coming days, Pennsylvania will also be getting shipments of that vaccine as well. It's still too early to know how many doses of the Moderna vaccine Pennsylvania will get when it becomes available, Levine said.

Under Operation Warp Speed, the Department of Defense and other agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are managing the allocation and distribution of the vaccine.

The vaccine will be distributed to Pennsylvanians in three phases. The first phase will focus on reaching health care personnel, emergency medical services first responders and residents and staff of congregate care settings.

In the second phase, a larger number of doses will be available. Efforts will concentrate on first-phase critical populations who were not yet vaccinated as well as the general population.

The third phase will focus on ensuring the entire population has access to the vaccine.

In testimony before Congress last week, Levine detailed the enormity of the task of getting the vaccine to everyone who wants it. In her testimony, Levine emphasized the importance of mitigation efforts and detailed the troubles surrounding the transportation and storage of the coronavirus vaccine.

"The logistics of the vaccine distribution are complicated and the degree of coordination among federal, state, and local levels of government required for this enormous undertaking is unprecedented," Levine said.

"While we, along with public health officials throughout the country, spent countless hours preparing, this mission is fraught with significant challenges that go well beyond just transporting the vaccine from Point A to Point B."

Those challenges include finding sufficient funding to rapidly execute a timely, comprehensive, and equitable vaccination campaign and establishing coordination and communication between federal, state, and local health agencies to distribute the vaccine, Levine said.

With reporting by Eric Heyl