PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Montgomery County officials say Pennsylvania expanding the current eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine while supply is still so limited means, at the current pace, it will take almost a year before they can get to teachers and other essential workers.
“I am not happy about this situation,” said Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh. She joined KYW Newsradio on Thursday morning to explain the situation:
She said expanding vaccine phase 1a to include anyone 65 and older and anyone over 16 with health issues means about 250,000 people are now eligible for the vaccine.
Her first concern is creating false hope for people eager to get vaccinated.
“It created an expectation that they could get vaccinated in the near future. Unfortunately, the other half of the message: we don’t have any vaccine, we don’t have anywhere close to the amount of vaccine necessary,” Arkoosh said.
At the current pace, Arkoosh said, it would take about a year before they could get to essential workers such as teachers, grocery store employees, mass transit or postal workers.
“We’ve been getting 5,000 doses per week, last week and this week. So if we continue to only get 5,000 doses a week, it’s 50 weeks to get to 250,000 people,” she explained.
Arkoosh said she was not consulted by the Pennsylvania Department of Health before the change was announced.
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She said she felt the previous plan balanced people who were at risk because of age with people who were at risk because of their jobs, but she is worried this plan could extend economic issues and limit the ability to reopen schools.
However, the county has to follow the state Health Department.
Philadelphia is getting vaccines directly from the federal government and operates under a different set of rules.