Pennsylvania officials give update on vaccine distribution

Nearly 17,000 Pennsylvania residents were vaccinated for covid-19 since Monday, Health Secretary Rachel Levine said Tuesday afternoon. That puts the statewide total at 311,477 total doses administered across the state.

Pennsylvania officials provided an update on the state’s progress vaccinating members of Phase 1A in the federal guidelines, which includes health care workers and residents and staff of long-term care facilities.

Secretary Alex Azar of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said earlier in the day that states should begin moving to vaccinate people 65 years or older — a portion of Phase 1B.

Levine said more than 250,000 Pennsylvanians have received one dose of the Pfizer BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, and more than 30,000 people have been fully vaccinated.

More than 52,000 residents and staff in skilled nursing facilities have been vaccinated, and the Federal Pharmacy Partnership program has organized 159 clinics at nursing homes this week.

An additional 138,000 doses were allocated to the state this week, Levine said, 107,600 of which have already arrived, with more coming Wednesday through Friday.

Vaccine can’t give you covid

Gov. Tom Wolf lauded the speed and safety of the vaccine, noting that it’s normal for people to experience some side effects after receiving the vaccine — but it is impossible to contract the virus itself.

That’s a common piece of misinformation.

“I am here to tell you that the covid-19 vaccine is safe to use, and very good at protecting people who are vaccinated,” Wolf said. “If you hear a rumor about covid-19 from a friend, or see something online that concerns you, take a few minutes to verify the information before you get too worried. Five minutes of fact-checking can save you and your loved ones a lot of worry.”

Officials were joined by Dr. Cynthia Chuang, chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, who spoke of the efficacy of the vaccines. The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine is known to be 95% effective in preventing covid-19, while the Moderna vaccine is 94% effective.

These are remarkable figures, Chuang said, especially compared to flu vaccine efficacy, which is normally between 40% and 60%.

Contact tracing is up

Meanwhile, Director of Testing and Contact Tracing Michael Huff said officials have noted a “major increase” in contact tracing responses since introducing the Connect & Protect form, an online form meant to streamline the contact tracing process. More than 6,000 calls were made last week to patients, Huff said, and inbound calls were more than 3,000 from patients in one day.

Since implementing the contact tracing management system in October, Huff said 76% of close contacts have been identified and reached by the Department of Health.

When it comes to vaccine distribution, Levine said the Department of Health is waiting to see more specific guidance from Operation Warp Speed for how to proceed in immunizing people over 65. She said the new stimulus package provided the state with about $100 million to use for vaccine clinics, sites and other expenses related to the distribution.

“We want to wait to see the whole plan, in writing, and then we will work to implement,” she said.

Levine also addressed concerns about people not in Phase 1A receiving the vaccine out of turn, while many 1A people who are not affiliated with hospitals are still struggling to get their first dose. Levine encouraged those workers to visit a map on the Department of Health website to see where they can go to be vaccinated. Each provider is listed and the map indicates whether they have available doses.

She said there have been no reports of people “jumping the line” in Pennsylvania, noting that at the end of the day, officials want everyone who would like a vaccine to get it.

“We do want to make sure we get vaccines into arms,” Levine said. “If a hospital or other vaccine site doesn’t have someone from 1A, but they have someone from for example 1B, and the vaccine would go to waste, please give the vaccine.”

Wolf added that about a third of vaccines that have been delivered nationwide have actually been administered, and Pennsylvania is slightly ahead of that trend.

State officials are still at the mercy of the federal government when it comes to distributing doses broadly and quickly — though much of the onus has been placed on state and local health departments to organize and coordinate the work on the ground.

“What we need from Operation Warp Speed is more specific detail about how much vaccine we’re getting and exactly when we’re getting it,” Levine said. “We want to know how much vaccine is going to go to specific hospitals. And the more detail that we have about that, the better we can prepare.”

“This is a natural balance of wanting to prioritize certain at-risk groups with a very strong health equity lens, and the other is speed, getting vaccine back into arms,” she added.