Getting the COVID Vaccine in Bucks County: Updates



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Bucks County, Pennsylvania – As of noon Wednesday, there had been 34,292 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Bucks County and 987 COVID-related deaths, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

County health officials were working to distribute vaccines to members of the public, according to the Pennsylvania vaccination plan. This article will be updated as new information becomes available. Bookmark it and come back for all the latest information on the COVID-19 vaccine in Bucks County.

Who is already vaccinated?

As of noon as of Wednesday, 13,865 people in Bucks County had been partially vaccinated against COVID-19 and another 4,150 people had received two doses of the two-dose vaccine. Most of the vaccines were administered in Bucks County hospitals to their employees or by pharmacists visiting nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in the county.

Who is eligible to get the vaccine now?

Currently, Bucks County, like the rest of Pennsylvania, is in Phase 1A of the state’s four-phase coronavirus vaccine rollout. Until Tuesday, that meant the only people eligible for a vaccine were healthcare workers, residents and employees of nursing homes and other care facilities.

But, on Tuesday, state officials dramatically increased the number of Pennsylvanians eligible for the vaccine during the initial phase. All people 65 and older, as well as residents 16 or older who have health conditions that put them at high risk of contracting the virus, were immediately eligible, making an estimated 3.5 million residents of Pennsylvania now eligible for vaccines.

On Friday, the county added a form for residents to register for the vaccine. Once registered, residents will be contacted to schedule an immunization appointment once enough supplies arrive, officials said. Those whose status changed on Tuesday will be moved from List 1B to List 1A and will not need to register a second time, officials said.

Click here to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccination in Bucks County

Where to get the vaccine in Bucks County

No COVID-19 vaccination sites were open to the public in Bucks County as of Wednesday.

During the initial phase of vaccine deployment, most doses were administered to employees at local hospitals. Pharmacy teams also visited nursing homes and other facilities to vaccinate eligible people.

The county has opened an appointment clinic in Langhorne where healthcare workers not affiliated with one of the county’s hospitals have been given injections, but that clinic is not open to the public.

Currently, the county has opened COVID-19 testing sites at three Bucks County Community College campuses across the county. These sites do not currently provide COVID vaccines, but on Wednesday county commissioners confirmed they plan to convert at this point early next month.

Commissioners also said at least two more vaccination sites were planned, although they had not been publicly identified. The five sites will be managed through a partnership with AMI Expeditionary Healthcare, which manages the BCCC test sites.

The county is also planning to set up smaller teams to visit elderly communities, housing authority properties, places that provide services to the homeless and other places to administer vaccines, the residents said. commissioners.

Vaccine procurement from Bucks Co.

County commissioners on Wednesday said the county currently does not have enough vaccines to vaccinate the number of people now eligible under the new version of the state plan. They said supply chain issues with the federal and state government have slowed supply here and called on those governments to get more vaccines to the county as quickly as possible.

In a press release, Bucks County officials said Tuesday’s announcement “widened the already large gap between the number of eligible residents and the vaccine supply available.”

This availability of COVID-19 vaccines in Bucks County is a developing story. Patch will update this post as new information becomes available in the days and weeks to come. Please come back for more details as they become available.

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