Fed To Send COVID-19 Vaccine Shipments Directly To PA Pharmacies

PENNSYLVANIA — As the national COVID-19 vaccine shortage wanes on, state officials in Pennsylvania face increased pressure and scrutiny from a frustrated and impatient populace. One bit of relief may be on the way, however: beginning next week, Pennsylvania pharmacies will receive shipments of vaccine doses directly from the federal government.

A total of one million doses will be shipped on Feb. 11 to some 6,500 pharmacies nationwide, White House officials announced. In Pennsylvania, state leaders are hopeful these shipments will help relieve the tremendous backlog which eligible residents are experiencing in the state.

Currently, the state receives doses and then allocates them; this announcement cuts out a middle man, while boosting the overall number of doses received. The Pennsylvania Department of Health presently sends roughly 36 percent of its doses to pharmacies, and those doses could be redirected in the future.

"This will hopefully mean that in the near future...we can start to send those vaccines to other parts of our mission," Department of Health Senior Advisor Lindsey Mauldin said Wednesday.

Pennsylvanians can learn more about where they can get vaccinated and when they'll be eligible at the state Department of Health's vaccine website here.

It's not yet clear exactly how many doses the pharmacies will be receiving in the direct shipments on Feb. 11, or which specific pharmacies across will receive them. The pharmaceutical partners on this plan in Pennsylvania are TopCo and RiteAid, so it will be at some number of those locations across the state.

Thus far, a total of 1,067,180 doses have been administered statewide, to 850,819 individuals, according to state statistics. A total of 216,361 have received the full two doses, while 634,458 have received only the first dose.

Meanwhile, some 4 million Pennsylvanians are in the expanded 1A priority category, awaiting the 8 million needed doses. Doses are trickling in at a rate that would take many months to vaccinate that number. Wait lines for appointments are hundreds of thousands of residents deep in some places, and as more people sign up, that will only grow: last week, the state received just 166,375 first doses and 139,875 second doses.

"Right now the demand for vaccine far outweighs the supply, but it will catch up," Mauldin added.

In some places, last week's shipments were drastically lower than the week before, creating further backlog. Montgomery County received 3,500 fewer doses last week than the week before, officials there said Wednesday.

"Pennsylvania receives a very limited allotment of vaccine each week," Barry Ciccocioppo, a press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, told Patch in an email. "There are currently more than 1,500 local vaccine providers across the state. As the number of providers grow, the limited allotment of vaccine is distributed among more providers."

While the limited supply — along with the expansion of 1A to include anyone over 65 — are obvious culprits to explain the delays, there is also increased scrutiny being placed on the efficiency of Pennsylvania's distribution plan.

The state currently ranks 44th in the nation in the total percentage of its doses used, according to a New York Times report analyzing state and jurisdictional efficiency in administration.

On Wednesday, state officials argued that some of this was due to lag time in reporting from vaccine providers.

"On any given day, there are tens of thousands of doses still sitting at the manufacturing sites, in transit to providers, being checked in by providers, being prepared for delivery to people and/or actually being put into the arms of Pennsylvanians," Ciccocioppo said.

Mauldin said the state was continuing to look at ways to improve access. They're working on improving the "877-PAHEALTH" hotline, for those without Internet access to make vaccine appointments. She said they're also expanding outreach efforts to networks that support seniors, in order to assist in registration.

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