The state COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force on Friday announced three initiatives aimed at getting more people vaccinated against COVID-19.

Gov. Tom Wolf said the task force is calling for all people in group 1A to have appointments for vaccinations by the end of the month, establishing regional vaccination clinics and dedicating weekly allocations of vaccine for front-line workers, including police, career and volunteer firefighters, correctional officers, grocery and meat processing employees, and agriculture employees.

In addition, Wolf said he will try to meet President Joe Biden's call to make all adults eligible for vaccinations by May 1.

Group 1A in the state's phased vaccination plan includes people age 65 and older, people ages 16 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions, and health care workers.

Out of the 3.4 million vaccinations administered in the state, nearly 1 million have been given to people age 65 and older, Wolf said.

“The special initiative the task force agreed on last week to vaccinate educators, school staff and early childhood educators is well underway, and we are making incredible progress vaccinating Pennsylvanians eligible in Phase 1A,” Wolf said. “These new initiatives will move us even further in the state's vaccination rollout.”

Wolf said the secretary of health will issue an order requiring vaccine providers to make efforts to schedule all 1A appointments by the end of the month. To assist, the state will give providers greater visibility into their future allocations, so they can schedule appointments with confidence in having enough vaccine for those appointments, he said.

“Last night, President Joe Biden laid out a bold plan for our country with a goal of making every American adult eligible to receive a vaccine by May 1,” Wolf said. “My administration is taking aggressive steps to meet that timeline.”

He said the state's hospitals have enough vaccine to partner with counties to create county vaccination sites. The state has been working with the federal government to set up 27 federal vaccine program sites in the state. Four of those sites are already up and running in Philadelphia and Lycoming counties.

Regional vaccination clinics will be established using a portion of the weekly allocation of Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses after the completion of the special initiative to vaccinate teachers, school staff and child care workers, Wolf said.

Counties will be encouraged to work in their region to submit a proposal for a mass vaccination clinic, community vaccination clinics, mobile clinics or other strategy to vaccinate people eligible in their region. The task force will review proposals and decide which best demonstrate an ability to support a mass vaccination clinic, Wolf said. The state will work with the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania to plan regional clinics, he said.

A portion of Johnson & Johnson doses allocated to providers weekly will be reserved for first responders and front-line workers, Wolf said.

“These are the Pennsylvanians who have had no choice but to continue serving our commonwealth during this pandemic,” he said. “These workers, their families and entire communities will be safer if they are vaccinated as quickly as possible.”

Also Friday, state health officials encouraged all long-term care facilities to implement updated nursing home visitation guidance issued by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The guidance acknowledges that there is no substitute for physical contact between residents and loved ones by allowing fully vaccinated residents to choose whether to have close contact while wearing face masks. Regardless, visitors should physically distance from other residents and staff in the facility.

The guidance also states that facilities should allow responsible indoor visitation at all times for all residents, regardless of vaccination status of the resident or visitor.

Visits to long-term care facilities would be limited if the COVID-19 county positivity rate is greater than 10% and if less than 70% of residents in the facility are fully vaccinated, residents have confirmed cases of the virus or the resident is in quarantine.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 3,074 new cases Friday, bringing the statewide total to 961,456 since the beginning of the pandemic. The county had 33 new cases, raising the total to 9,145.

The 40 new deaths across the state raises the total to 24,530 deaths. No new deaths were added to the county's total of 375.

In the county, 21,831 people have received one vaccine dose and 24,067 both doses. A person is considered fully covered after receiving two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.