Bucks Co. Vaccine Clinic Closed For Rest Of The Week

WARWICK, PA — One of Bucks County's five public COVID-19 vaccine clinics will be closed for the rest of the week, as federal health officials study the safety of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The mass vaccination site in Warwick was the only one of Bucks County's vaccination sites that was giving the Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine. Officials announced that the site has postponed all remaining appointments for the rest of this week.

The pause in giving the J&J vaccine has been described as an "abundance of caution" move to let the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigate reported incidents of blood clotting.

In all, six patients — all women between ages 18-48 — have reported blood clots out of more than 6.8 million Johnson & Johnson doses administered.

Bucks, which had halted vaccinations at the Warwick site on Tuesday, decided to extend the postponements after federal officials met Thursday, but did not decide when giving the vaccine should resume.

The county postponed about 4,700 appointments at the clinic that were scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. That was in addition to nearly 1,800 appointments postponed on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Bucks County Health Department said it is working with people who had appointments to reschedule them for two weeks later than planned.

Bucks County's four other mass-vaccination sites — on Bucks County Community College campuses in Bristol, Newtown and Quakertown and at Neshaminy Mall in Bensalem — are using the two-dose Pfizer vaccine.

On Tuesday, those sites set a single-day record, giving 3,401 vaccine doses. They're on pace to give roughly 14,000 shots this week, officials said.

In a joint statement, the FDA and CDC called problems with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine "extremely rare," but urged anyone who has gotten it and experiences severe headaches, abdominal or leg pain or shortness of breath within three weeks to contact a doctor.

As of Thursday morning, a total of 341,998 vaccination shots had been given by all providers in Bucks County, with 126,829 people fully vaccinated and another 88,340 having gotten one shot of a two-shot vaccine, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

The state reported 261 new COVID-19 cases in Bucks County on Wednesday, along with one new death. That brings the county's case total since the pandemic began to 55,180 and the death toll to 1,206.

A total of 109 people were hospitalized in Bucks County with the virus, a number that has been on the rise in the past few weeks. Of those, 33 were in intensive care as of Thursday morning, with 10 on ventilators.