Pennsylvania released an updated coronavirus vaccination plan Friday, making more people eligible for admission in the early stages of the rollout.
Health workers and nursing home residents remain in the front line, followed by people aged 75 and over and “essential workers” such as police officers, shop assistants and teachers.
As COVID-19 continues to rage across Pennsylvania, health officials warned the state is still months away from having enough doses of the two approved vaccines to inoculate the general public.
“I know it’s hard to ask, but we have to be patient,” said Dr. Rachel Levine, the Secretary of Health for Health, Friday. “It will take several months for this vaccine to be available to everyone.”
To date, the Pennsylvania federal government has assigned more than 827,000 doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. More than 235,000 shots have been given, although Levine said the actual number will certainly be higher as reporting from hospitals and pharmacies lags one to three days.
Doctors, nurses and other health professionals, and residents and staff of nursing homes and long-term care facilities – a group of about 1 million – roll up their sleeves first. State officials have not provided a timeline for when that first phase of the vaccination campaign, which began last month, will be completed.
The next step under the state’s revised vaccine plan is the over-75s and key frontline workers, a huge and diverse group including clergy; first responders; prison guards; school staff; and food, manufacturing, postal, public transportation, and grocery store personnel.
After that, people aged 65 to 74 will be eligible, people with serious health problems, and a huge group of employees in sectors ranging from banking to energy.
Rep. Aaron Kaufer R-Luzerne, said high-risk Pennsylvanians should be placed higher on the state’s priority list.
“I am absolutely appalled that the Governor and Dr. Levine have shown so little concern and given low priority to residents with high-risk medical conditions in developing their COVID-19 vaccine plan,” Kaufer said in a press release.
Levine said the state’s vaccine plan is in line with recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At a press conference on Friday, she predicted it could be late spring or summer before the state will be ready to offer the vaccine to anyone who wants one.
“This is going to take time, but a future without COVID-19 is coming,” said her boss, Governor Tom Wolf.
The state reported more than 10,000 new, confirmed cases of the virus on Friday – most in a few weeks – likely the start of a post-holiday spike, Levine said. The state has an average of about 7,500 new cases per day.
Geisinger, one of the state’s largest health systems, says it continues to see high rates of infections and hospitalizations. The numbers are “consistent with what one would expect during a full community dissemination,” said Dr. Jaewon Ryu, Geisinger’s CEO, in a separate briefing on Friday.
Geisinger said it has given more than 1,000 shots of vaccination a day, vaccinated about half of its employees, and expects to have delivered the first doses to about 19,000 people by the end of next week.