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People traveling across county and state lines in search of COVID-19 vaccine

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As the demand for the COVID-19 vaccine continues to far outpace the supply, frustrated Pennsylvanians are traveling across county and state lines to get vaccinated.

Called vaccine tourism, the trend is growing across the United States, where each state has its own rules to determine who can get a vaccine.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health said the commonwealth has no state residency restrictions on vaccinations.

“At this point, Pennsylvania does not prohibit anybody from going to another state and getting a vaccine, but other states are saying we don’t want you to come here for the purposes of getting a vaccine,” Gov. Tom Wolf said at a COVID-19 update last week.

In neighboring states, New Jersey is vaccinating adults who live, work, or attend school there; in Ohio, non-residents are eligible for the shot; and in West Virginia out-of-state residents who work in the state are eligible.

New York state is only vaccinating people who live or work in the state.

Health officials want to get shots in the arms of as many eligible people as possible, but they also worry that people crossing state lines could impact states’ limited vaccine supplies.

So, depending on the location, there’s no guarantee a vaccine provider will make doses available to people who live out of state or outside of the county and fall within Pennsylvania’s Phase 1A qualifications.

At Washington Health System – where the website to sign up for the COVID-19 vaccine briefly crashed on the day it opened as more than 13,000 people attempted to get an appointment in the first 24 hours – vaccines are being administered to eligible residents in Washington and Greene counties, and health-care workers who work in the counties.

“We’ve had requests from Illinois, New York state, South Carolina, the Dominican Republic, and we’re not doing any of those folks,” said WHS President and CEO Brook Ward in a briefing earlier this week. “There’s an allocation across the state and the federal government for the population in each county, so you should get your vaccine, ideally, in the county you live. That helps the allocations and distribution of the vaccine statewide work better.”

WVU Medicine Uniontown Hospital in Fayette County is administering the vaccine only to Pennsylvania residents.

“We are not vaccinating anyone who resides out of state at this time,” said Joshua Krysak, director of community relations at Uniontown Hospital.

Fayette County is finalizing a county-wide registration process, and information on the program will be announced next week.

Monongahela Valley Hospital is vaccinating eligible people within the community.

“Since the state is allocating the vaccines to providers across the commonwealth, we feel obligated to provide it to those in our primary service area,” said Mon Valley media specialist Andrew Bilinsky.

Allegheny Health Network encourages anyone outside the health system’s coverage area who is seeking a vaccination to look for resources within their local counties and communities, including state and local government services, local healthcare providers, and local retail providers, such as pharmacies.

Because of limited vaccine supply, AHN is holding appointment-only vaccination clinics that target the most vulnerable populations.

DOH Senior Adviser Lindsey Mauldin said earlier this week the commonwealth is “working on ways to increase access” to the vaccine.

A Rite Aid spokesman said scheduling at its pharmacies, located in 17 states, currently is done through the states and municipalities.

So far, about 1.1 million doses have been administered to more than 880,000 Pennsylvanians.

According to the DOH dashboard, as of Friday, 10,475 people in Washington County have received their first dose, while 3,665 have received both doses; in Greene County, 1,646 have received a first dose, and 284 a second dose; and in Fayette County, 4,884 people have received a first dose, while 2,389 people have gotten both doses.

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