SOUTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pennsylvania – Cars filled the Dorney Park parking lot on Wednesday for a mass vaccination clinic.
This involved two weeks of planning for Lehigh Valley Health Network to put the operation into operation.
“We are very excited about this, we are happy that our community of 75 years or older is willing to participate in this type of effort,” said Dr. Alex Benjamin of LVHN.
The LVHN is well aware of mass vaccination sites, as it maintains a drive-thru flu clinic each year, but doctors say a COVID vaccination site has a few more hurdles.
Dr. Timothy Friel, an infectious disease specialist at LVHN, said the biggest challenge is not knowing when they will receive the doses or how much they will receive.
“It makes planning mass vaccination campaigns, like this one, very, very challenging,” said Ali Reid of WFMZ.
In addition, special parking is required for people to wait the mandatory 15 minutes after vaccination.
All appointments to the drive-thru clinic were filled quickly, and the LVHN plans to vaccinate about 1,000 people, aged 75 and over.
All registrants also received a follow-up appointment to receive the second dose of Moderna vaccine in a few weeks.
“This is really the only promised vaccine that we are aware of now, according to the state. Second doses will be maintained,” said Benjamin.
LVHN said it has the capacity to vaccinate at least 5,000 a day, when adequate supplies are available.
The São Lucas Health Network is also running mass vaccination sites in its 11 hospitals. A spokesman said they can vaccinate up to 5,000 people a day, but the supply was also limited for them, so now about 3,000 doses are being administered daily.
“It has been frustrating and disappointing because we are all counting on the federal government during this process to make sure we have the vaccines,” Governor Tom Wolf said during a news conference on Tuesday.
About 4 million people in Pennsylvania are eligible to receive the vaccine now, in group 1A, meaning that 8 million doses would need to be implemented in the first phase.
At the moment, the state is far behind.
“We received about 1.5 million vaccines and, as it is a two-dose cycle, that means we have enough for basically 750,000 Pennsylvania residents,” said Wolf.