BLUE BELL, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) -- The gymnasium at Montgomery County Community College been transformed into the county's first mass coronavirus vaccination clinic. Top county officials were there when the doors opened on Wednesday morning, expressing concerns with the limited supply of vaccines so far.
The clinic is taking patients by appointment only for people who live or work in the county in the 1A category -- that's health care personnel at greatest risk of exposure and residents and staff of long-term care facilities and nursing homes.
Bleachers have been turned into a 15-minute observation area to make sure people who receive the vaccine have no adverse reactions.
County Commissioner Dr. Val Arkoosh is confident in the staff and the setup, but not so much in the supply chain. She says the infrastructure is in place to vaccinate 800, maybe 1,000, people a day, but there aren’t enough doses yet for that kind of output.
“We are able to give more vaccine than we have. Our only rate-limiting step right now is vaccine itself," Arkoosh said.
For example, the county asked for 5,000 doses this week and got 3,000. In all, the county has received 7,000 doses in the last three weeks. There are approximately 20,000 people in the conunty in the 1A category. So she is asking for patience.
Walk-ups for the general public are not yet available.
Applicants must first fill out a pre-screening survey to get a link to access the appointment system.
A county spokeswoman says some people have been wrongly denied because of a technological issue in the pre-screening, but that problem has been fixed.
Those eligible, beyond hospital workers, include EMS personnel, physicians, nurses at other practices, dentists, technicians, pharmacists, nursing assistants and home health aides and more -- along with those not directly involved directly in patient care at facilities, such as security guards and cleaning crews.
"It’s been like walking in a time bomb," said Dave, a maintenance worker at a hospice care facility, who declined to give his lasts name.
For those on the fence about getting the vaccine, his message is pretty clear: "I say get the shot, because COVID kills."
Another who got the shot on Wednesday is Christine Phillips, who works at Keystone Homecare and Hospice in Wyndmoor.
"I'm a home health nurse, and I take care of a lot of people with COVID," she said.
Phillips says she actually got sick with COVID-19 in the fall, but she is getting the vaccine to protect herself, her family and her patients.
"Luckily I only had coughing and a little bit of shortness of breath," she said.
The clinic is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and more appointments will be available when more doses are.
The county hopes to start vaccinating the next category of people, including those age 75 and above, by the end of January or the beginning of February.