Pittsburgh-Federal Changes May Mean More COVID-19 Vaccine In Pennsylvania, Allegheny County

Pittsburgh PA

04 February, 2021

2:13 PM

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By PublicSource reporters, Public Source 2021-02-03 The Pennsylvania Department of Health [DOH] expects federal changes in vaccine distribution to increase the vaccination rate in the state, where less than a third of the doses needed to get past Phase 1a have been administered. During a Wednesday press briefing, DOH Senior Advisor Lindsey Mauldin touted the move by President Joe Biden's administration to begin directly distributing vaccine doses to retail pharmacies starting next week. Previously, states had to pull from their allotted vaccines to supply pharmacies, but soon, the federal government will directly distribute vaccines to pharmacies in addition to regular vaccine allotments to states. Pennsylvania has been sending about 36% of its Moderna vaccine to the retailers Rite-Aid and Topco. "We have to wait and see how many doses will be directly sent to Topco and Rite-Aid locations, but this will hopefully mean in the near future, we can start to [use] those vaccines [that the state would have sent to the pharmacies] for other parts of our mission to vaccinate eligible Pennsylvanians," Mauldin said. The Biden administration also plans to give states an idea of how many vaccines they will receive in the next three weeks. Previously, states only received information one week ahead, which has been cited by both the state and Allegheny County as a big problem. County Executive Rich Fitzgerald lauded news of the federal government supplying vaccines directly to pharmacies during a press briefing, but he and Allegheny County Health Department [ACHD] Director Dr. Debra Bogen said they do not yet have exact details on what this could mean for the county. Fitzgerald and Bogen also referenced the Johnson & Johnson vaccine currently being tested. "I will be thrilled if the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is approved," Bogen said. "It's a one-dose vaccine, which means it's much easier to administer." ACHD has been looking into possible sites for new vaccine distribution centers spread around the county for ease of access. However, Bogen said it is difficult to move forward with new distribution centers without better predictability of how much vaccine the county will receive. She also addressed frustration concerning ACHD's decision to administer vaccines only to people 65 and older at its own distribution centers. Pennsylvania allows county health departments to make such decisions, Bogen said, and ACHD wanted to prioritize vaccinating elderly residents. "The single, most clear determinant for whether a person will develop a severe case of COVID-19, be hospitalized due to COVID-19 or die because of COVID-19 is age," Bogen said. "And the older someone is, the higher the risk." The vast majority of residents at the four Kane Community Living Centers have been vaccinated against COVID-19, the county announced Wednesday. More than 1,500 residents and employees of the senior homes have been vaccinated, of whom 1,300 received the second of the two required shots. About 92% of residents and 64% of employees agreed to be vaccinated. Though the rate of transmission has been decreasing since the holidays, Bogen cautioned residents to remain vigilant, especially with the Super Bowl approaching. "Even though the Steelers aren't playing, I know many of you plan to watch the Super Bowl, and I encourage you to stay safe while doing so," Bogen said. "The safest Super Bowl parties are ones with only members of your household." ACHD confirmed 328 new COVID-19 cases and 33 new deaths Wednesday. The new cases, dated from Jan. 25 to Feb. 2, came from individuals three to 96 years old, with a median age of 40. The deaths, from Dec. 19 to Feb 1, occurred in two people in their 50s, eight in their 60s, five in their 70s, eight in their 80s, nine in their 90s and one person more than 100 years old. ACHD associates 14 of these deaths with long-term care facilities. To date, ACHD has reported 70,165 cases, 1,495 deaths from the virus and 4,473 past and present hospitalizations. The DOH confirmed 3,128 new COVID-19 cases and 143 new deaths from the virus Wednesday, bringing the new statewide pandemic totals to 853,616 and 21,955. Additionally, 3,281 individuals are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, about 20% of whom are in intensive care units. Nursing and personal care home residents and employees represent about 8.9% of the state's total cases and approximately 53% of the state's total deaths from the virus. Through Tuesday, 1,067,180 vaccine doses have been administered in Pennsylvania. Of those, 216,361 people have received both doses. Through Feb. 6, providers in Pennsylvania will have received 2,121,100 vaccine doses, according to the DOH. Pennsylvania's Early Warning Monitoring System dashboard update shows a seven-day case increase of 25,985 for the week of Jan. 22 to Jan. 28, indicating 5,823 fewer cases than the prior seven days. Statewide the positivity rate is now 9.3%. Each county in the state has a percent positivity above 5%, with one county having a percent positivity over 20%. The dashboard also indicates that there are 63 counties in the substantial level of transmission category, three counties in the moderate level of transmission and one county in the low level of transmission. Allegheny County falls is considered to have a substantial level of transmission. Contact tracing data shows that out of the 34,545 cases reported from Jan. 17 to Jan. 23, only 3,463 residents provided answers as to whether or not they had spent time at a business. Of that number, 352 people answered yes when asked if they'd visited a business and 252 answered yes when asked if they'd attended a mass gathering 14 days prior to the onset of their symptoms. This article was reported by Annie Siebert, Lauren Davidson, Matt Petras, Punya Bhasin, Danielle Cruz and Dannys Marrero. This article was produced by PublicSource.org, a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. PublicSource tells stories for a better Pittsburgh. Sign up for their free email newsletters at publicsource.org/newsletters.