The Allegheny County Health Department is working to ensure people who received first doses of the covid vaccine will get their second dose, as planned, after state officials announced a likely shortage of more than 50,000 doses next week.

State officials on Wednesday described a “perfect storm of circumstances” after some providers spent weeks giving out dedicated second-dose shots as first doses. Between 30,000 to 60,000 second-dose appointments could be pushed back one to two weeks, Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam said.

The Allegheny County Health Department was not among the providers that administered second-doses as first doses in the last few weeks, said Dr. Debra Bogen, the county’s health director.

Still, the shortage could cause some appointments made through the county to be postponed. Appointments will still fall into the window between 28 and 42 days after the first dose, she said.

“As our plans to address this becomes more concrete, we will share it with you all,” Bogen said at a virtual news briefing Wednesday.

The department receives only 10% of the total covid vaccine doses allocated to Allegheny County, which are administered at distribution sites in Monroeville and — as of yesterday — Castle Shannon.

Bogen said 470 people were vaccinated at the Castle Shannon location in the first day, and that number should increase to 700 per day for the rest of the week.

Plans are in the works to open more clinic locations in the coming weeks or months, County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said, with special attention being paid to where existing clinics by other providers are already located.

“We don’t want to duplicate geographic areas,” he said. “Going into underserved communities and filling gaps has been the role (of the health department) so far.”

The health department also started visiting senior high-rises throughout the county last week, and has since administered around 400 doses at facilities in Homestead, Clairton, West Mifflin, Turtle Creek and Pittsburgh’s Lincoln-Lemington neighborhood and Hill District. In total, Bogen said about half of the vaccine doses the health department has received have gone to people over the age of 65.

Meanwhile, case counts in the county continue to drop – with the average daily new cases amounting to 182 per day, a decrease of about 15 from last week. Allegheny County’s positivity rate is 6%, Bogen said, which is “stable.”

“The fact is, people wearing their masks, social distancing, going through their proper protocols when they’re going to work…has been much, much better,” Fitzgerald said. “And obviously more people being vaccinated has been very helpful.

“There’s light at the end of the tunnel, and that light seems to be getting brighter.”

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