Vaccine providers accidentally gave away second doses of vaccines
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The Pennsylvania Health Department announced Wednesday that second doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine were inadvertently administered to others as first doses.
Vaccine providers misused as many as 200,000 vaccines.
As a result, between 30,000 and 60,000 people will have to push back their second-dose appointments one to two weeks. And vaccine providers could be short as many as 30,000 to 55,000 first doses of the vaccine next week, according to Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam.
“In the short term, we are faced with second dose Moderna vaccine requests far exceeding the Moderna vaccine allocated to the state this week,” Beam said.
According to Beam, the timing of administering the second dose to those impacted will now have to be adjusted, but she said the vaccine will be given within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended time frame of 42 days after the first dose.
Beam did not disclose which providers misused the second doses.
Beam said the DOH first explored excess inventory not scheduled for administration this week and, to the extent the department was able to, used it to address the shortage.
She said “a perfect storm of circumstances” that started in early January and “compounded week over week” led to the error.
“We are taking immediate action to remedy the situation and are committed to ensuring that second doses are available,” said Beam.
The Pfizer vaccine was not affected.
Beam said the scarcity of vaccines contributed to the problem.
This week, Pennsylvania has been allocated 183,575 first doses of the vaccine and 143,275 second doses.
In addition, the federal government is sending thousands of doses directly to Rite Aid and Topco stores in Pennsylvania under the Federal Retail Pharmacy Partnership program.
About 1.3 million people in Pennsylvania have gotten at least one dose of vaccine. More than 436,000 people have gotten two doses, completing the vaccination regimen.
Also, the DOH reported an additional 3,413 additional positive cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the statewide total to 902,650.
The state reported 193 new deaths, bringing the total number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 since March to 23,319.
In Washington County, two more people died from the virus, while in Fayette County, five more deaths were reported.
Washington reported 84 new cases, raising the total number to 13,395. There were 23 new cases in Greene County, and Fayette County saw 60 additional cases, bringing their totals to 2,587 and 10,202, respectively.