PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- COVID-19 vaccines are still in clinical trials, but Pennsylvania health officials have plans in place for when those vaccines become available. They are working with federal agencies to make sure they can get vaccines where they need to go as quickly and as safely as possible.
Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine says initial vaccines will not eradicate the virus.
"But they will be much more protected, and can have that comfort they’re much less likely to get COVID-19 or to get a very severe case," Levine said.
She says it will have an effectiveness more like the flu vaccine.
"Say 60% of the people who receive the vaccine won’t get the flu. Others might get the flu, but they get a very mild case of the flu. So, it does help them, from a medical point of view," Levine said.
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Levine says that means when they start distributing the vaccine, people will still need to follow mitigation efforts, like wearing masks and avoiding large crowds, "until we get enough of the people in the commonwealth vaccinated that there’s significant decreases in the amount of community spread."
She says, once a vaccine is released, Pennsylvania will give it first to health care professionals and vulnerable populations like nursing home residents. Then it would be made available for the general public.
Levine says one of the more unique challenges is multiple vaccines could be released around the same time, so there will be national tracking systems so they know "who got vaccine, when they got it. Since most of the vaccines will have a booster, you will have to get two shots, we’re going to have to track that as well."
Another variable determining who gets the vaccine first is which vaccines become available. For example, one requires subzero temperatures for storage, which makes it more challenging to widely distribute.