Pennsylvania released an updated coronavirus vaccine plan on Friday that makes more people eligible for vaccines in the early stages of launch.
Health professionals and nursing home residents remain at the front of the line, followed by people aged 75 and over and “essential workers” like police, grocery store clerks and teachers.
With COVID-19 growing across Pennsylvania, health officials have warned that the state is still months away from having enough doses of the two vaccines approved to inoculate the general public.
“I know it’s hard to ask, but we must be patient,” said Dr. Rachel Levine, state secretary of health, on Friday. “It will be several months before this vaccine is available to everyone.”
To date, the federal government has allocated over 827,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to Pennsylvania. More than 235,000 injections have been administered, although Levine said the actual number is certainly higher because reports from hospitals and pharmacies take one to three days.
Doctors, nurses and other health care professionals, residents and staff of nursing homes and long-term care institutions – a group of around 1 million – are rolling up their sleeves first. State officials have not offered a deadline for ending this initial phase of the vaccination campaign, which began last month.
Next, under the state’s revised vaccination plan, are people aged 75 and over and essential frontline workers, a huge and diverse group that includes the clergy; first to respond; prison guards; school staff; and food, manufacturing, post office, public transport and grocery workers.
Thereafter, eligibility will extend to people aged 65 to 74, those with serious health problems and another large batch of workers in industries ranging from banks to energy.
Congressman Aaron Kaufer R-Luzerne said that Pennsylvania’s high-risk residents should move up the state’s priority list.
“I am absolutely shocked that the governor and Dr. Levine have shown so little care and little priority to residents who have high-risk medical conditions when developing their COVID-19 vaccine plan,” said Kaufer in a press release.
Levine said the state’s vaccination plan follows the recommendations of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At a news conference on Friday, she predicted it could be late spring or summer before the state is ready to offer the vaccine to anyone.
“This will take time, but a future without COVID-19 is coming,” said his boss, Governor Tom Wolf.
The state reported more than 10,000 new confirmed cases of the virus on Friday – the maximum in several weeks – likely indicating the start of a post-holiday increase, according to Levine. The state has an average of about 7,500 new cases per day.
Geisinger, one of the state’s largest health care systems, said it continues to record high rates of infections and hospitalizations. The numbers are “consistent with what you would expect during the full spread of the community,” said Jaewon Ryu, CEO of Geisinger, in a separate interview on Friday.
Geisinger said he has given more than 1,000 vaccines a day, inoculating about half of his workers, and hopes to have administered the initial doses to about 19,000 people by the end of next week.