PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Guidance for the distribution and administration of the coronavirus vaccine seems to be changing by the day, so who is actually eligible to get it right now?
Pennsylvania and New Jersey are taking different approaches to vaccine distribution.
New Jersey is opening eligibility to a wider group, getting the shot in as many arms as possible. Pennsylvania, meanwhile, is focused on a smaller group in an effort to vaccinate the most vulnerable people first.
Pennsylvania is following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s current guidelines — Phases 1a, 1b and 1c — in which the 1a group applies to medical workers and skilled nursing residents and staff.
Montgomery County Commissioner Dr. Val Arkoosh said it’s a balance between getting as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible but also targeting people most at risk.
They’re keeping the focus narrow because the limitation isn’t finding enough arms, she said. It’s finding enough vaccine.
“We really need to look at this as a community,” she said. “It’s fine to open up the age range lower” — to 65, which the CDC recommended earlier this week — “but we don’t have any vaccine. We don’t nearly have enough vaccine to start to make an appreciable number of those folks able to get it.”
And, Arkoosh said, there’s also the issue of equality — making sure they’re reaching essential workers from minority communities that have been hit hard by the coronavirus.
In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy didn’t hesitate to lower the age eligibility from 75 to 65, once given the recommendation.
Not only are front-line health care workers, residents of long-term care facilities, and police and fire personnel eligible, but now, people over the age of 65 and those with specific chronic health conditions may begin scheduling vaccine appointments.
Chronic health conditions include cancer, chronic kidney disease, COPD, Down syndrome, heart conditions, obesity and severe obesity, sickle cell disease, Type 2 diabetes, and smoking.
The New Jersey Health Department said its goal is to get high-risk groups vaccinated and to save as many lives as possible.
Under the expanded list, about 4.5 million residents are eligible — in a state that’s administered a little more than 300,000 doses so far.
According to the CDC’s latest count, the U.S. has shipped 31.1 million doses across the country. More than 12.2 million doses — about 39% — have been administered to people.