Vaccine supply now outnumbers demand in Allegheny County, officials said Wednesday

At a news conference, Dr. Debra Bogen, health director, and County Executive Rich Fitzgerald again encouraged county residents to make a vaccine appointment or walk in for a dose at a county clinic.

All Pennsylvania residents 16 and older are eligible for a covid vaccine as of last Tuesday.

“It means freedom,” Fitzgerald said.

Overall, vaccination rates continue to rise in Allegheny County. Fitzgerald said there have been more than 900,000 shots administered in the county, inoculating more than 565,000 people. That’s almost 57% of the adult population, Fitzgerald said.

About 84% of people 65 and older in Allegheny County have received at least one dose. Among those 50-64, Bogen said, about 54% have received at least one dose.

Bogen said the availability of vaccine has allowed the county to loosen the restrictions on where people can seek second doses, and the health department is putting more emphasis on making it as easy as possible for people to receive a dose wherever they are.

College students returning to the county from elsewhere, or leaving Allegheny County after getting their first dose, can seek a second dose wherever they are headed, Bogen said. Walk-up availability is increasing at clinics; and the department will decrease large vaccination sites in the next couple of weeks, in favor of more targeted events.

“Our goal is really to bring the vaccine to people where they are,” Bogen said.

Bogen said the health department, like the rest of the state and nation, is waiting for the “green light” to resume administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was paused last week after rare blood clots were identified in six women in the two weeks following their shot. One of the women died. More than 6.8 million people have received the J&J vaccine across the U.S., most with no severe side effects.

At Wednesday’s briefing, Bogen said the J&J pause was a setback.

“Simply put, it gave people who were questioning whether they wanted to get a vaccine an excuse not to get one,” she said.

Bogen noted the covid death rate in the U.S. is about 60 times higher than the death rate from car accidents. Contracting covid also is exponentially more likely to kill someone than getting blood clots from the vaccine, she said, especially among older individuals.

“I don’t wish to diminish the serious effects of blood clots,” Bogen said. “I only strive to reiterate that the risk of developing these blood clots is exceedingly rare, about one in a million.”

Pennsylvania officials last week said the J&J vaccine pause would extend until at least Saturday.

Meanwhile, Allegheny County is still in a “fourth wave” of cases, Bogen said. But daily infection counts have decreased in the last week, averaging 350 new cases a day — down from 425 a day in the first 10 days of the month.

“Not where we want to be, but certainly headed in the right direction,” Bogen said.

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