Pa. notches two days of 110,000 COVID-19 vaccinations as supply grows – PennLive

March 11, 2021

Pennsylvanias weekly COVID-19 vaccine allocation from the federal government has risen to about 480,000 first and second doses, with the number of first doses up by about 12,000 from last week, state officials said Wednesday.

Moreover, the state has averaged about 67,200 vaccinations per week for the past week, including two days of about 110,000 people getting vaccinated.

Gov. Tom Wolf stressed Wednesday that the supply is still short of demand. However, he said the federal government is going a good job of increasing the supply, and echoed President Joe Bidens recent prediction that everybody who wants a vaccine should have one by the end of May.

State officials said they expect Pennsylvanias supply to get a further boost from expanded production of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine. And with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine requiring only one dose, that could rapidly increase the rate of vaccinations, state health department spokesman Barry Ciccocioppo said.

However, Ciccocioppo seemed to contradict Wolf when asked how many vaccine doses have been wasted because of events such as people not showing up for late-day appointments after vaccine doses have been opened. Once opened and brought up to usable temperature, vaccine must be used within about six hours or it will spoil.

Ciccocioppo said about 1,500 doses have been lost, although he pointed out the number includes doses lost through incidents such as being dropped. Thats out of about 3 million doses received by the state.

Wolf, at a separate event on Wednesday, was asked how many doses have been thrown out. He said so far, none have been thrown out.

Wolf went on to stress that Pennsylvania has a law against throwing out vaccine. Rather, if providers have doses that would otherwise spoil, they should just give the vaccine to someone, regardless of whether the person is in Phase 1A.

State officials on Wednesday also outlined the process the state health department uses in allocating doses to counties.

The department uses a formula based on a countys total population, its population of residents 65 and older, its number of COVID-19 infections and it number of COVID-19 deaths. The department gives the most weight to a countys 65 and older population and its number of COVID-19 deaths, with the two accounting for 60% of the decision.

At the opening of a vaccination site in Lancaster County on Wednesday, Wolf was challenged on claims, including some made by elected officials, that counties surrounding Philadelphia are getting less than their fair share of vaccine.

Wolf said health department data shows allocations for those counties have been at or above the state average. Moreover, he said the health department is devoted to fair allocation of doses and is continually asking itself whether vaccine is being distributed in the fairest, best way, and adjusting the process accordingly.

As Republican state Sen. Ryan Aument stood near, Wolf credited a bipartisan state task force with solving problems related to vaccine distribution.

I know this is a divisive period of time for politics, Wolf said. But I think weve actually figured out how we can have very rational conversations, can disagree with each other, and do it in a way that actually leads, I think so far, to really good outcomes, so that were in a better position than we were before the vaccine task force started.

He said inadequate vaccine supply remains the biggest barrier to vaccinating everyone who wants a dose.

Pennsylvania vaccine providers this week requested almost 425,000 first doses of vaccine nearly double the states allocation for the week, a state official noted on Wednesday.

Right now the demand outstrips the supply. The hope is that we will get to the reverse of that quickly within the next few months, Wolf said.

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