Vaccine will go to most at risk initially Health staffers, care homes for vaccine
When the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are distributed in the next couple weeks, they will be administered to health care workers along with patients and staff at long-term care facilities in the first phase of a plan state officials outlined Friday.
Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine discussed vaccinations and updated the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry on the latest COVID developments during a webinar.
The current upsurge is resulting thousands of new cases and many deaths everyday, and more than 5,000 Pennsylvanians are hospitalized, Wolf said.
As of Friday, 11,763 new cases statewide including 120 new cases as well as three more deaths in Butler County were reported.
Wolf said no one knows how many vaccinations the federal government will distribute and who will receive them first, but indications are that front line health care workers and the patients and staff at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities will be the first.
He said there are no plans to make vaccinations mandatory.
Levine said staff from Walgreens and CVS pharmacies will go to long-term health care facilities to administer the vaccines to employees and senior citizen patients. Hospital workers will also receive vaccinations in the first phase, which has been dubbed “Operation Warp Speed,” she said.Next in line for immunizations in the first phase will be police officers, firefighters and people who work in congregate care settings, Levine said.The doses will come from allocations provided weekly from the federal government, she said.Vaccinations will be more wide spread in the second phase that will begin in the spring when food manufacturers, minorities and other priority populations will receive vaccinations. Vaccinations will be available from hospitals, health centers and at least 19 pharmacies in the second phase, she said.The general population can receive vaccinations from hospitals, health centers and pharmacies in the third phase that will begin at the end of spring or early summer, Levine said.She said it will take six to 12 months to immunize everybody who wants to be immunized.Both of the vaccines that have been developed are safe and effective, but require two separate injections and coordinating the correct timing of the injections will be a challenge, Levine said.Like the flu vaccine, the COVID vaccines are not live virus vaccines and people who get the shots can't contract COVID from them; however, mild reactions including slight fevers are possible side effects, she said.
Levine addressed questions from chamber members about testing, saying more than 83,000 tests, the most administered in the state in one day, were given Friday and the state averages more that 61,000 tests a day, exceeding the national average.There are more than 500 testing sites across the state, and the state signed a contract for more pop-up testing sights, she said.New guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say people who test positive should quarantine for 10 days instead of the 14 days that was recommended in earlier guidelines, Levine said.They can test out of quarantine after seven days, but it will be difficult to get a test after seven days, she said.People with symptoms or who have been exposed to the virus should get tested, but, Levine said, she doubts insurance plans will pay for tests for people with no symptoms.Contact tracing at health care facilities, schools and prisons receive priority and the state can't trace all close contracts, so people should use the contact tracing app provided by the health department, she said.In addition, Levine recommended that people stay home to celebrate Christmas. Traveling within or outside of the state creates the risk of transmitting the virus, she said.“I know that's really hard. That's a sacrifice,” Levine said.She said at least part of the ongoing surge in cases are cases transmitted during Thanksgiving celebrations.
