PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Gov. Tom Wolf is touting Pennsylvania's efforts to speed up its vaccine allotment. The governor says there is already a surplus of appointments in some parts of the state.
Wolf says Pennsylvania is above the national average in the percentage of population that has gotten a first vaccine shot, and at the average for the second shot.
"Thirty-one percent of our population has gotten the first dose. The national average is 29%," he said. "That made us 13th in the country, among the states."
He says compared to the 10 most populous states, "We're No. 1 in the country in terms of first doses, and we're tied for second with a bunch of the big states for (shot) number 2."
Pennsylvania is requiring providers to get everyone on their waiting list scheduled for an appointment, but he says he expects those appointments will be within one or two weeks.
"The idea was to have everyone in 1a have at least one shot. And if not the one shot an appointment in a reasonable period of time by tomorrow and I think we're on schedule to do that," said Wolf.
Wolf says he believes anyone in Pennsylvania who is eligible for the vaccine can find an appointment, adding there are open slots across the state.
"If there are empty slots, across the state, we would ask the governor to have the Department of Health send them to Bucks County!" Bucks County Commissioner Diane Marseglia said. "We know our residents cannot and should not be traveling when we have the ability to vaccinate them here."
Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie said, "We can only vaccinate people based on the amount of vaccine we are given. If there are other areas of the Commonwealth that have extra doses they aren't using, we feel confident the counties in the Southeast can use them."
Chester County says they will have to schedule the more than 80,000 on their list into August. Montgomery County is in the same boat, as they have more than 70,000 on their list.
The county health departments are just one provider in the counties, and since there is no central registry, many of those on the lists are likely duplicates, but it's impossible to say how many when scheduling now.
