The following vaccine developments took place in the week of January 22-29 in Bucks County:
BUCKS COUNTY, PA – According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, 39,657 cases of coronavirus in Bucks County and 1,034 COVID-related deaths were reported Friday afternoon.
Provincial health officials have continued to try to get vaccines from the public, according to the Pennsylvania vaccination plan.
Who has been vaccinated?
By Friday afternoon, 21,504 people in Bucks County had been partially vaccinated against COVID-19 and another 7492 people had both received doses of the two-vaccine. Most vaccines were given to their employees at Bucks County hospitals, or by pharmacists visiting the nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in the country.
Who can get the vaccine now?
Bucks County, like the rest of Pennsylvania, remains in Phase 1A of the four-phase deployment of the coronavirus vaccine. Originally, this meant that the only people eligible for a vaccine were health workers and residents and employees of nursing homes and other care facilities.
Bucks County has created an online coronavirus vaccine information center. The center contains detailed information on who is eligible to be vaccinated under each of the four phases of the state plan.
On it is a form with which residents can register for the vaccine. After they register, residents will be contacted to plan a vaccination appointment as soon as sufficient supplies arrive, officials said.
Click here to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccination in Bucks County
Anyone in Bucks County with internet access is encouraged to register online for a vaccination. But for those who do not have access to the Internet, there is another way. In Bucks County, residents can register for a vaccination by calling the county’s coronavirus helpline at 1-800-383-0371.
Where can you get the vaccine in Bucks County?
At the end of the week, there was no COVID-19 vaccine for the public in Bucks County. But officials hope that will change soon.
During the first phase of vaccination of the vaccine, most doses were administered to employees at local hospitals. Pharmacy teams also visited nursing homes and other facilities to be eligible for eligible people.
The county has opened a clinic in Langhorne where health workers not involved in any of the hospitals have been shot, but the clinic is not open to the public.
Currently, the county has opened COVID-19 test sites on three Bucks County Community College campuses throughout the province. The sites do not currently offer COVID vaccinations, but land commissioners have said they plan to convert it to such an extent early next month.
Commissioners also said at least two other vaccination sites were planned, although not publicly identified. All five sites are managed through a partnership with AMI Expeditionary Healthcare, which manages the BCCC test sites.
Bucks County hospitals have begun announcing that they will soon be giving the vaccine to members of the public as well. The St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne now accepts online registrations of people over 65 and those 16 or older with pre-existing health conditions.
The hospital said it plans to be eligible within the next few weeks.
See the St. Mary Medical Center COVID-19 Vaccination Form here
Bucks County also plans to put together smaller teams to visit visitors to the elderly, properties for housing authorities, places that provide services to the homeless and other places to administer vaccines, the commissioners said.
Lower Bucks Hospital in Bristol has announced plans to open a COVID-19 vaccination clinic for members of the public next month
Hospital spokeswoman Michelle Aliprantis told Patch the clinic will partner with the Bucks County Department of Health and the state of Pennsylvania. She said the clinic is scheduled for mid-February.
Doylestown Health’s priority is to vaccinate as many eligible individuals in the current 1A phase as supply and resources allow, hospital spokeswoman Beth Long told Patch:
Doylestown Healthcare practices (primary care and specialists) contact their patients who are the most vulnerable and most at risk of contracting COVID-19 to meet immediate vaccine demand. The patient will be contacted when they are eligible, and will be given the opportunity to schedule an appointment at one of two locations: Doylestown Hospital or Doylestown Health Urgent Care (both sites by appointment only). The number of vaccines administered at both sites daily will vary according to the available vaccine, which is currently much less than the demand.
On Wednesday, the first public vaccination clinic in Eastern Pennsylvania opened in Lehigh County. Hundreds of first responders and elderly residents offered their first dose of the vaccine in Dorney Park. The one-day clinic in Allentown was open to people 75 years and older who made appointments, as well as health workers and first responders.
The site is temporary, but health officials there say more mass vaccination clinics are coming.
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