PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — COVID-19 case counts continue to soar across the country, with no exception in Pennsylvania. State health officials again reported record numbers on Saturday.
12,884 positive cases of coronavirus were recorded in Pennsylvania Saturday, the largest single-day total in the state since the start of the pandemic. Also significant is that the total number of cases in Pennsylvania now stands at 411,484, indicating that COVID-19 is still spreading across the commonwealth.
Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said there are three ways to deal with the pandemic.
"Containment. That involves testing and contact tracing," she explained. "There are mitigation efforts and we have increased our mitigation efforts over the last number of weeks and then there's the distribution and administration of the vaccine."
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Levine said the first vaccinations could begin as early as this month.
"Now of course, the Pfizer vaccine will go first to the FDA on the 10th," she said. "We will await the FDA's official declaration that this is a safe and effective vaccine to distribute and administer, and then we will be doing that."
Once approved, Levine said the vaccine will be delivered to health systems in Pennsylvania that have the capacity to store and administer it.
"That's the one that has to be stored at -80 degrees centigrade or Celsius," she noted. "About a week after the Pfizer vaccine goes to the FDA, the Moderna vaccine goes to the FDA and then we'll hope for that approval."
Once approved, Levine said health care workers and nursing home residents will be first to be vaccinated.
"Then we'll work to distribute that to hospitals, and then through CVS and Walgreens to those long term care facilities," she detailed.
But Levine said, while waiting to be vaccinated, people have the power to slow or stop the spread of the virus through hand washing, distancing and mask-wearing.
"What this virus has certainly shown us is that we are all interconnected," she said. "And we all must work together and stand united against this dangerous and contagious virus."