Bucks County officials said Tuesday that they plan to have Phase 1A-qualified residents who registered for a vaccine scheduled soon and expect to open vaccinations to all by May 1.
Gov. Tom Wolf recently set a mandate that counties have to have scheduled all Phase 1A-qualified residents on their radar for a shot by the end of March, and President Joe Biden pledged to make every adult in the country eligible for vaccination no later than May 1.
“Over the past week, the county has sought to clear its waiting list of residents who have pre-registered on its website for Phase 1A of the vaccine rollout, emailing appointment invitations to 65,000 people. That process concluded Monday,” county officials said in a press release.
The county stepped up efforts over the past week to clear its waiting list of Phase 1A-qualified residents by scheduling vaccination appointments. A total of 65,000 appointment invitations were sent through Monday.
“On Tuesday, last-call emails will be sent to everyone who pre-registered as 1A-eligible with the county – about 160,000 in all — to make sure nobody was missed. Anyone who has already been vaccinated or scheduled an appointment should disregard the notice,” officials said.
While the governor ordered appointments be scheduled, he did not state vaccinations had to be completed by the end of the month. County officials said those Phase 1A-qualified appointments are being booked into late April at county-supported vaccination sites
Beginning Thursday, the county health department will no longer keep a Phase 1A patient waiting list. Those who qualify and have not scheduled their appointments or were previously not on the county waiting list can directly register for an appointment. A link for the direct scheduling portal will be available starting Thursday, officials said.
Last week, the county’s four clinics in Bensalem Township, Bristol Township, Newtown Township, and East Rockhill Township administered 13,847 total doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
Officials noted that was a record number of vaccine doses administered through the county at AMI Expeditionary Healthcare-run clinics.
Outside of the high-profile county mass vaccination clinics, 28,966 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered by other providers, including medical offices, hospitals, and other qualified organizations, according to officials.
As of Tuesday, Bucks County had 82,175 people partially vaccinated and 81,436 fully vaccinated.
The county noted that roughly 31 percent of the county’s adult population had received at least one dose.
The county has plans to open another mass vaccination clinic in Upper Bucks County and one in Warwick Township in the central part of the county.
While the county and local health care providers have administered the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the state allotted the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine to school workers and plans to divert further doses of that vaccine to two regional mass clinics, one of which is slated for Montgomery County. The Wolf administration’s idea of the regional mass clinics has caused controversy as counties want the doses to be administered through their existing efforts.
The state department of health is shifting some vaccine doses to a smaller number of providers in the coming weeks. The move will leave Lower Bucks Hospital in Bristol Township without doses.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Pennsylvania is the 12th state in the country in terms of percentage of population which has received at least one dose as of Monday morning. The statistic is an increase over past weeks.
See also:
Inside Pennsylvania’s Race To Expand Who’s Eligible For The Coronavirus Vaccine
Organizers Vaccinate 700 Residents At Pop-Up Community Clinic In Horsham Township
‘Superhero’ Pharmacist Vaccinates 3,000 At North Penn High School Over Weekend
Wolf Administration Refuses To Release Details Of Wasted COVID-19 Vaccine Doses
Report: Former Sears Location At Montgomery Mall To Become COVID-19 Vaccination Site
