All Pennsylvania residents can schedule covid vaccines in April

All Pennsylvania residents will be eligible to schedule covid vaccination appointments beginning April 19, two weeks ahead of President Biden’s directive of May 1, state health officials said Wednesday.

The state Department of Health also launched a new initiative to expand vaccine eligibility to front line workers, including those in grocery stores, police officers, firefighters, and food and agricultural workers.

In a virtual news conference, Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam said workers who can’t work remotely or social distance will be eligible for covid vaccines immediately. The plan calls for using all three available vaccines, which will be shipped directly to retail pharmacies and other providers.

“These are people who work hard every day and don’t have the option of teleworking from the safety of their home,” Beam said. “Each of these sectors has continued to go to work day in and day out to ensure that life in Pennsylvania has continued.”

The rest of phase 1B, which includes additional front line workers, will begin Monday, April 5. The group includes postal workers, manufacturing workers, clergy, those in congregate settings (shelters, correctional facilities) and others.

Phase 1C, which consists of workers “essential to continued critical infrastructure,” will begin the following Monday, April 12.

The following week, starting April 19, every adult in the state will be eligible to make appointments, state officials said.

“The vaccine landscape continues to evolve as the federal government is increasing allocations to more retail pharmacy chains across the country,” Beam said. “To ensure that vaccine continues to get to people efficiently and equitably, Pennsylvania is adapting its plan to allow workers in targeted industries to access any of the three vaccines available at providers throughout the state, and to accelerate our eligibility for remaining phases of the state’s vaccination plan.”

She estimated between 190,000 and 250,000 front line workers became eligible with Wednesday’s announcement. Nearly 1 million will become eligible with Phase 1B, and between 1.3 million and 1.7 million will become eligible with 1C.

The announcement comes the same date by which providers across the state were previously ordered to have all Phase 1A appointments scheduled.

Expanding eligibility, Beam said, was made possible by the supply projections for the next week and through the month of April — providers now have more predictability in the supply for weeks to come, allowing them to schedule appointments much further in advance.

“We listened when folks told us they would rather have a scheduled appointment than be on a waiting list. We worked to make that a reality,” Beam said.

“We also just want to make sure to note, just as a clarifying point,” Beam added, “when we speak to Pennsylvania going into Phase 1B, individuals who are in any of the previously eligible phases can still go get vaccinated.”

The impending increase in vaccine supply also coincides, Beam said, with many providers reporting a decreased demand in Phase 1A — more appointments have been left available or unfilled in recent weeks.

“It was becoming challenging to fill the 1A slots over the last few weeks,” said Dr. Imran Qadeer, chief medical officer at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.

For the majority of the vaccine rollout, Qadeer said, Allegheny Health Network’s vaccine appointments would be booked within hours of opening. But recently, it’s been taking hours or more to get people scheduled. Qadeer said it was getting harder for AHN to adhere to the state’s phases as a result.

“With this move, I think we’ll be able to get more shots in arms more quickly and we’ll be able to do more mass clinic events,” he said.

Dr. Don Yealy, chair of emergency medicine at UPMC, said there have been select locations across the system that have seen increased appointment availability as Phase 1A nears its end.

But systemwide, UPMC still has around 450,000 people either scheduled for a shot or on a waiting list.

“We still have lots of Phase 1A people to go through, but after that, we fully always expected Phase 1B, 1C and the rest of the population — this just puts a definitive timeline on that,” he said. “The real key is we need more vaccine.”

Wednesday’s announcement was no surprise, Yealy said, as hospital leaders have been expecting priority guidelines to evolve over time. In the last three months, Yealy said the state Department of Health has improved greatly in communicating with providers, regular delivery of the vaccine and giving some predictability about the vaccine supply in the future.

Dr. Carol Fox, chief medical officer at Excela Health, agreed, saying things improve “each day and each week.”

“A lot of places, ourselves included, were reticent to schedule appointments without having vaccine in hand, because we just didn’t know week to week whether we’d get it next week or not,” Fox said. “Now, since they have narrowed the scope of organizations that have the vaccine, thereby giving you some consistency and some confidence that you’ll get vaccine next week, I think it makes it much more comfortable to schedule ahead.”

Fox said Excela’s vaccine registration system already asked people to identify their job category, so front line workers who had previously signed up through the system have already been notified of their eligibility to schedule an appointment.

Western Pennsylvania providers and lawmakers alike praised the expansion and expressed confidence they could handle the increase in the eligible population. In a statement, state Rep. Tim O’Neal, R-Washington, a member of the Covid-19 Vaccine Task Force, said Wednesday marked a “day of hope and optimism.”

“Earlier this month, we announced plans to prioritize our essential workers and first responders by offering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to them in the coming weeks,” O’Neal said. “We have now done that today. In addition, we have set a timeline so that anyone who wants the vaccine will get able to begin scheduling their appointment at the latest by April 19. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and brighter every day.”

Despite progress with vaccine distribution, covid cases in Pennsylvania — and nationwide — are on the rise. Beam said covid variants in Pennsylvania are likely more abundant than what the current genomic testing capacity suggests.

Beam said the state is “still on track” to proceed with relaxed mitigation measures effective this Sunday, April 4, including greater capacity limits for restaurants and businesses.