Pittsburgh PA Health Department Discusses Partnerships In Health Equity Efforts To Distribute COVID Vaccines

Pittsburgh PA

17 March, 2021

6:32 PM

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By PublicSource reporters, Public Source 2021-03-16 The Pennsylvania Department of Health announced its commitment Tuesday to expanding health equity efforts for the COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Office of Health Equity Director David Saunders said partnerships are being established between the department and local community organizations to better spread awareness about the vaccine. Some partnerships include the Black Equity Coalition, All Youth Access and a host of faith-based associations. "Our partners are so engaged and eager to help with vaccine educational activities, acceptance messaging and distribution strategies," Saunders said. "They are excited that they, like us, see the light at the end of the tunnel." "Our partners are so engaged and eager to help with vaccine educational activities, acceptance messaging and distribution strategies," Saunders said. "They are excited that they, like us, see the light at the end of the tunnel." Office of Operational Excellence Director Brian Lentes highlighted the specific steps the department will take to help enforce health equity in vaccine distribution.. "Our first step in developing an equitable vaccine distribution plan was to understand the data and identify populations most at risk of contracting COVID-19 and severe illness," Lentes said. He said they incorporated that by creating a broad definition of what it means to be healthcare personnel as to be sure it extends to more racial and ethnic minorities. The department said to help maintain health equity, they use a formula to balance weekly vaccine allocations for each county, excluding Philadelphia County. This formula incorporates county population, percentage of residents 65 and older, cases per county and deaths per county. Lentes said he hopes that by using metrics to determine allocation, it will help maintain the department's mission of achieving health equity. Other COVID-related news and announcements made on Tuesday were: Through March 15, 3,735,484 vaccine doses have been administered in Pennsylvania: 2,486,324 people have received one dose of the vaccine, and 1,249,147 people have received both doses of the vaccine. The Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed 3,119 new COVID-19 cases and 65 deaths Tuesday, bringing the totals since the start of the pandemic to 970,717 cases and 24,652 deaths. Nursing and personal care home residents and employees represent about 8.5% of the state's cases and about 52% of the state's deaths. Healthcare workers represent about 2.7% of the state's cases. The Allegheny County Health Department reported 306 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths Tuesday. The new cases — from positive tests dated March. 4 to March 15 — come from individuals 1 year old to 91 years old, with a median age of 36. To date, the Allegheny County Health Department has reported 80,360 cases, 1,732 deaths from the virus and 5,378 past and present hospitalizations. Gov. Tom Wolf announced on Monday that, starting April 4, some restrictions on restaurants and other businesses will be lifted. Gathering limits will also be increased. Indoor dining capacity will be raised to 75% for restaurants that are currently self-certified and restaurants that are undergoing the self-certification process. Restaurants that do not self-certify will be allowed to raise their capacity to 50%. In April, restaurants will also be allowed to resume bar service, and the 11 p.m. curfew for removing alcoholic drinks from tables will also be lifted. Wolf also announced that venues will be allowed to hold indoor events at 25% maximum occupancy and outdoor events at 50% maximum occupancy, as long as workers and attendees can comply with the 6-foot physical distancing requirement. Businesses like gyms, entertainment facilities and moving personal services facilities will be allowed to operate at 75% maximum occupancy. Mask-wearing and social distancing requirements are still in effect for all businesses. Wolf on Monday toured the Berks County Intermediate Unit's COVID-19 vaccination area as the state continues to vaccinate Pre-K-12 educators using the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The Berks County vaccination area is one of 28 intermediate units, including in Allegheny County, that the Wolf administration is collaborating with to distribute the vaccination. Since the initiative was announced March 3, the intermediate units have provided 52,778 doses of the vaccine to both school and contracted staff, including bus drivers and transportation personnel, the state said. The state is also using partners in the Retail Pharmacy Program, including Rite Aid, Topco and Walmart, to schedule vaccinations using separate allocations of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The state COVID-19 Task Force announced its commitment Friday to administering vaccines to everyone in Phase 1A who wishes to get a vaccine, setting up more mass vaccination clinics and setting up vaccination distribution plans that allocate vaccines to frontline workers. The plan is an effort to protect those most vulnerable in the state and to further speed the efficiency of the vaccine distribution, keeping in mind President Joe Biden's deadline to make all adults eligible for the vaccine by May 1. Starting in April, the state will begin vaccinating frontline essential workers such as police officers, firefighters, grocery store workers, postal workers and first responders who have had no choice but to continue working during the pandemic. Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam said the state's hospital systems now have enough vaccines to partner with other counties to create county and regional vaccine sites. Gov. Tom Wolf said vaccination rates are climbing and the task force hopes to meet the goals of the Biden administration. "My administration is taking aggressive steps to meet that timeline, and we are fortunate to have the leadership and partnership of President Biden and his administration as we work to protect the people of Pennsylvania," Wolf said. It's been a year since the arrival, locally, of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Wednesday, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald focused on two pieces of good news: the continued roll-out of vaccines and steady, decreased COVID-19 case counts. "We want to continue to see the mask-wearing and the social distancing that we know we need to do for the last, hopefully, the last couple of months, until we get to a point where most of our residents, most of our citizens are vaccinated," Fitzgerald said. COVID-19 test results have been coming back positive 5.2% of the time, a 0.7% decrease from last week, and the average daily case count for this week was 160, down 10 cases from last week, according to Allegheny County Health Department [ACHD] Director Dr. Debra Bogen. Hospitalizations and deaths are also slowly declining, she said. As of Wednesday, ACHD has administered more than 53,000 vaccine doses, Bogen said. Its Castle Shannon site has reached its goal of providing about 1,000 Pfizer doses a day, and its Monroeville site has been providing similar amounts of Moderna vaccine second doses at about the same rate. ACHD will soon announce a new vaccination site, she said. ACHD only receives about 10% of the vaccine doses allotted in Allegheny County, with the rest going to providers such as hospitals. Bogen continued to urge caution amid decreasing transmission of the virus and increases in vaccination. "As we enter this new stage of our fight against COVID-19, when more and more people are vaccinated, we must continue thinking not only of our own health and safety but all of those around us," Bogen said. Pennsylvania officials on Wednesday touted transportation options available across the state to COVID-19 vaccination sites and other vaccination appointments, saying that at least 39 counties offer some form of free trip to inoculations. "Transportation should not be an impediment to receiving medical care or, in this situation, the COVID-19 vaccine," said Jennie Granger, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's deputy secretary for multimodal transportation. "And PennDOT is proud to offer options to the citizens of Pennsylvania to get where they need to go." Port Authority of Allegheny County Spokesman Adam Brandolph said the authority does not currently offer any such subsidies to or from vaccine appointments. He noted, however, that Port Authority offers free transit year-round to those 65 and older, a key demographic for the first phase of vaccination in Pennsylvania. Allegheny County spokesperson Amie Downs wrote to PublicSource that "the county has arranged transportation for those who need it to vaccination appointments." Wolf headlined a rare off-site press briefing Wednesday at the Lancaster County Community Vaccination Center, a site Wolf and other officials lauded as a shining example of accessibly providing vaccines to Pennsylvanians. The site has the capability to administer as many as 6,000 vaccinations a day, though vaccine supply has not yet allowed it to reach that level. Red Rose Transit Authority, which operates through the South Central Transit Authority, provides free rides to this site on fixed-transit routes and shared rides on shuttles so long as passengers have a vaccination appointment already scheduled. Shared ride programs in that area already offered subsidized trips to those 65 and older as well as individuals with disabilities. "We know that transportation is a challenge in terms of making sure that this vaccine is accessible," Wolf said. This article was reported by Annie Siebert, Lauren Davidson, Matt Petras, Punya Bhasin and Danielle Cruz. 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.