PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The COVID-19 vaccine rollout seems to have hit a turning point in recent days. Supply has caught up to, if not surpassed, demand.
Last week, the state expanded eligibility to everyone 16 and older ahead of schedule. The expansion was set to take effect April 19 but the state moved it up to April 13 because they were seeing a decline in demand.
To offset that decline, Pennsylvania is getting ready to roll out an informational campaign to try to push back against vaccine hesitancy.
“We’ve worked very closely with some of our Republican leaders and counterparts in the General Assembly and at the local county and community level to make sure they are able to armed with the truth around the science and development of these vaccines,” said acting Pennsylvania Health Secretary Alison Beam.
In many cases, providers are doing more outreach to find more people to vaccinate — for example, partnering with high schools to get students who are 16 and older, along with other community members.
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Beam said they are looking at expanding the number of vaccine providers, but barring an unlikely significant increase in incoming vaccine supply, they need current providers to reduce their requests so they have more vaccines to spread around.
“We’re working right now to make sure when they order, they’re still ordering in compliance with roughly that 80% of doses used within seven days,” she explained.
Since the state expanded eligibility late last week and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was paused, Beam said it’s hard to judge exactly where it stands right now, as far as demand.