PA COVID: Mass vaccination facilities arrive in Montgomery, Delaware counties

DREXEL HILL, Pa. (WPVI) – Plans are underway to protect residents of Delaware and Montgomery counties from COVID-19.

Large vaccination sites will help get the doses to as many people as possible.

But many residents say they still have plenty of questions about the deployment.

We met a group outside of the Wawa in Upper Darby who said they were looking for more information.

“It’s a bit very vague as to how many are available and when exactly it’s going to be more widespread,” said Patrice Dorfman of Drexel Hill.
Rich Gallagher of Drexel Hill said: “They have to explain to us more about what it is and what it’s going to do.”

SEE ALSO: What officials say about the progress of COVID-19 vaccination in Pennsylvania.

Delaware County Council vice president Dr Monica Taylor told Action News where the county stands when it comes to administering the vaccine.

“We’re up about 4,500 vaccinations so far, in the first round,” Taylor said.

Dr Taylor also said they plan to open three mass vaccination sites, including one in Yeadon.

“It’s going to be in our wellness center so it’s a defined site, and then we’re looking at two sites in the middle of the county and one site on the west side,” Taylor said.

However, she says the priority right now is healthcare workers. As with everyone, she said, “It’s going to be fluid and we’ll learn as we go and make adjustments as we go.”
Action News has learned that there will also be a mass vaccination site at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell. The opening of the site is scheduled for Wednesday.

SEE ALSO: To speed up access to COVID-19 vaccine, California doctor suggests single doses, delays second shot

“Our goal is to get up to 2,000 a day, but we probably won’t reach that goal until the end of January. So our immediate target is 1,000 a day, but it depends on how much vaccine we get, ”said the interim health administrator. Janet Panning.

People will need to register on the Montgomery County COVID-19 website, but like Delaware County, Montgomery County is focused on vaccinating frontline healthcare workers.

“The last two weeks, we got the vaccine on Wednesday morning and we got 2,000 doses each time,” Panning said.

Health Secretary Dr Rachel Levine said on Monday that 135,044 Pennsylvanians had been vaccinated so far. She says it will be several months before the population as a whole can expect to receive the vaccine. It provides for a rendezvous style system to avoid long queues when launching the extended deployment.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Monday confirmed 3,226 additional positive COVID-19 cases, in addition to the 4,579 new cases reported on Sunday, Jan.3 for a total of 7,805 additional positive COVID-19 cases over two days. This brings the state’s total to 665,097.

There are 5,529 people hospitalized for COVID-19, nearly double the peak in the spring. Of that number, 1,149 patients are in the intensive care unit with COVID-19.