Vaccine production is expected to ramp up across the nation over the next two weeks. What will that mean for Pennsylvania?
Paul Mango, Deputy Chief of Staff for the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, said the feds have sent a large supply to the commonwealth already, even though only a third of them have been injected so far.
"They've received over 600,000 actually delivered to sites they designate and it's getting close to 200,000 that are already vaccinated, so yeah there's a pretty big gap there."
State health officials partly blame the holidays for the delay, but the rate of vaccinations should increase rapidly.
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"I think it was always going to be a challenge during those 2-3 weeks to be able to administer the vaccines that were sent to us," said Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine.
Some other states are already operating mass vaccine clinics.
Pfizer and Moderna are rapidly increasing the rate of production. "I would guess by sometime next week or certainly the week after we'll be doing a million or more a day," said Mango.
And he said two more drug makers are expected to seek federal approval soon. Johnson and Johnson's one-shot vaccine could be approved this month.
"If everything goes well, that is a vaccine that we hope will be approved by the FDA by the end of January."
AstraZeneca's vaccine - already approved in other countries - may be available here in February.
Mago said state health officials should consider broadening the eligibility for the vaccine sooner than originally planned to get even more vaccines in arms.
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UPMC Chief of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Donald Yealy, says the rollout of vaccinating health care workers started a little slow for them, but they're increasing the rate of vaccination every week.