PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — As leaders from each of the four counties bordering Philadelphia go back and forth with the Wolf administration over vaccine supply concerns, they have a simple message: They're ready and waiting.
County officials say they have been following pandemic emergency planning, which includes prepping for mass distribution of vaccine.
"All four counties in the southeast have unused capacity to administer vaccines here in the southeast -- on the order of thousands of doses a day across our four counties," Montgomery County Commissioner Dr. Val Arkoosh said.
Arkoosh says her county could give 14,000 doses a day if they were given the supply.
Chester County says their health department could vaccinate 12,000 people next week if they had the vaccine. With a few weeks' notice, the county could do 33,000 per week.
One day after a meeting with the acting health secretary that left southeastern Pennsylvania lawmakers frustrated and disappointed, officials from all four counties issued a joint-statement to the Pennsylvania department of health outlining several concerns.
In its reply, the department says the four collar counties qualify for one regional mass vaccination site.
Delaware County councilmembers say they worry one mass site for 2.5 million people, over an area as large as Bucks, Montgomery, Chester and Delaware counties, would only increase inequities, because it would require significant travel for certain people.
Arkoosh agrees.
"We are conveying that it is our strongest preference that we continue to have these sites in our counties so they are much closer and more accessible to everyone in our community," she said.
Philadelphia is getting its vaccine directly from the federal government, so the city is operating under different rules.
The southeastern counties have repeatedly told the Department of Health they each have long lists of people still eligible for shots.
The Department of Health maintains no county will move to the next phase, until all are done with the current list. In the letter, the department says they will "terminate the supply" of any provider who goes out of order.
