Pennsylvania plans to send vaccine to more providers
Pennsylvania plans to greatly expand its network of COVID-19 vaccine providers as demand for the lifesaving shots begins to slow and existing vaccinators order fewer doses, the state’s top health official said Tuesday, potentially making it easier for people in underserved areas to schedule an appointment.
The state had slashed the number of providers receiving vaccine by more than two-thirds as the Wolf administration, under pressure to speed shots into arms, redirected the state’s limited supply to a couple hundred hospitals, federally funded health centers, municipal health departments and pharmacies that could quickly inoculate large numbers of people.
Smaller vaccine providers who were cut out said the move hurt some of the state’s most vulnerable residents. A new map produced for the Pennsylvania Pharmacists Association’s vaccine task force shows that many of the providers who lost their ability to vaccinate are located in medically underserved areas of the state.
“This poorly constructed decision resulted in heightened concerns among citizens relying on those pharmacy providers for vaccine,” Victoria Elliott, the association’s CEO, said via email Tuesday. She said it “left senior citizens, the disabled, the homebound and those with special needs without access to vaccine.”
Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam said at a media briefing Tuesday that with supply finally catching up to demand, she expects more providers will begin receiving shipments over the next two to three weeks — assuming existing providers cut their orders.
By late May or early June, she predicted, all 3,000 of the providers that have signed up to receive vaccine might become eligible for it.
“What we’re looking at is making sure more providers in the surrounding communities, and more providers in the network broadly,...