State to ramp up COVID-19 vaccine effort
Pennsylvania expects to vaccinate or schedule COVID-19 vaccines for everyone in the 1A eligibility category by the end of the month under President Biden’s rush to put the shots in the arms of every American.
Gov. Tom Wolf made the announcement Friday, adding that police officers, firefighters and grocery store workers will be added to the initiative in two weeks.
“We’re within striking distance of the finish line,” Wolf said.
The state has been hampered in getting through the 1A category that includes people 65 and older due to a short supply of vaccines.
A large shipment last week of the new one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine allowed the state to roll school employees into the the 1A category, with local schoolteachers starting to receive doses Saturday.
As of Thursday, more than 6,500 school employees in Pennsylvania had received the J&J vaccine, said Randy Padfield, director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
Wolf said the state’s allotment of vaccines, including the Pfizer and Moderna drugs, has grown from five million doses a week to between 20 million and 22 million a week.
Wolf said he was “very confident” Pennsylvania will meet the new vaccination goals.
Pennsylvania also plans to open regional vaccination clinics to make it easier for the public to get a shot.
Wolf said the state has made incredible progress in getting through the 1A category, allowing Pennsylvania to rise above the national average by having 19.8% of its residents vaccinated against the virus.
“This is significant growth,” he said.
State Rep. Tim O’Neal, a Republican from South Strabane Township, said Biden’s Thursday announcement about making every American eligible for the vaccine by May 1 was “huge news.”
He also said he was ecstatic to have the ability to soon vaccinate first responders under the updated plan of the state’s bipartisan COVID-19 task force, of which he is a member.
“They risked their lives to make sure we were protected,” O’Neal said.
The first COVID-19 case in Washington County was discovered a year ago Saturday. Devin Taquino, 47, of Donora, lost his life to the disease April 10, becoming the county’s first COVID-19 fatality.
The virus has since killed 268 residents of Washington County and another 271 in Fayette County. The virus has claimed 34 lives in neighboring Greene County.
The virus has claimed the lives of 24,530 Pennsylvanians after 40 new statewide deaths were announced Friday by the state Health Department. The state announced 3,074 new virus cases that day.
Wolf said the level of new cases and deaths was still too high.