PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Some COVID-19 vaccine providers in Pennsylvania say they are still in the dark about how many doses they can expect to get in the coming weeks.
Last week, the Pennsylvania Department of Health announced they were short on second doses of the Moderna vaccine and asked providers to push back the second dose so they could catch up.
The first and second doses are exactly the same. The second dose is effective anywhere from four to six weeks after the first.
However, some smaller vaccine providers say they’re having a tough time rescheduling canceled appointments because they can’t get an answer from the state on how much of the vaccine to expect.
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“There is some inherent lack of clarity,” said Gov. Tom Wolf, “because we don’t control the allocation to Pennsylvania of the vaccine. But that’s not meant to be an excuse. We need to do a better job, and one of the areas we need to do a better job in is communicating with the providers so that we’re all on the same page.”
Wolf hopes regularly scheduled meetings with state lawmakers — as part of the recently adopted vaccine task force — will improve communication with providers. Meanwhile, the state remains at the mercy of the federal government for its allocation of vaccine doses.
According to a Pennsylvania Health Department spokesperson, harsh weather has caused delays in distribution, but the department is holding daily calls with providers across the state. Providers may not like the information they’re getting, he added, but they are receiving information.
The department said its plan to extend the second Moderna shot by a couple weeks, hoping it will “smooth out” the shortage in the coming weeks.