The first COVID-19 vaccines have arrived in Centre County, with Mount Nittany Health receiving an initial shipment on Wednesday morning to be distributed to health care workers.
Mount Nittany plans to begin immunizing its direct care staff and providers with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine this week and while receiving the vaccination will be voluntary, it will be strongly encouraged. A staff survey found most intend to be vaccinated.
While it likely will be months before the vaccine is available for more widespread distribution among the general population, Mount Nittany Chief Medical Officer Dr. Nirmal Joshi said in a statement that the development is promising and offers hope.
“We are certainly encouraged by FDA clinical trial findings that the Pfizer vaccine offers nearly full protection against virus symptoms after receiving both doses,” Joshi said. “Its overall effectiveness also seems to span across all age groups, genders, racial and ethnic minorities and those with underlying conditions like diabetes and obesity. It’s very promising, and a glimmer of hope during this pandemic.”
Protocols for the vaccine are to receive a second dose 21 days after the first injection.
Mount Nittany Medical Center is one of 87 in Pennsylvania slated to receive the state’s initial shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to be distributed to health care workers as outlined in the Department of Health’s interim vaccine distribution plan. The Pennsylvania Department of Health’s 97,500 doses will be delivered directly to the hospitals by Dec. 21, with more sites receiving it as additional allocations become available.
Philadelphia received its own allocation of 13,650 doses, making the state’s initial total 111,150.
“This is a pivotal development in the fight against COVID-19, in Pennsylvania and the nation,” Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said earlier this week. “This limited supply of vaccine signals the start of the process to end COVID-19’s devastating impacts on every community in the commonwealth. However, it is important to remember that we are still months away from being able to vaccinate all Pennsylvanians, making mitigation efforts more important than ever to save lives.”
Hospital sites are selected by their ability to manage the cold chain requirement with the vaccine — which must be stored at extremely cold temperatures — as well as completion of a COVID-19 provider agreement necessary documentation with the Department of Health.
“These first doses of vaccine are being given specifically to health care workers through hospitals,” Levine said. “Hospitals are making arrangements to implement these vaccinations, not only to their own frontline staff but to other high-priority recipients. The number of people we can immunize truly depends on how quickly the manufacturers can make the vaccine.”
At least nine other hospitals have received initial shipments so far, including Geisinger Lewistown in neighboring Mifflin County.
Though the advent of the vaccine offers hope, it will be some time before it is widely available and Joshi said continuing safety measures is critical.
‘The most effective safety measures we can take against COVID-19 continues to be wearing a mask, frequent hand washing and maintaining social distance,’ he says. ‘These measures are especially important during the holidays as we continue to see a rise in COVID cases and subsequent hospitalizations.’
Mount Nittany Medical Center has seen COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to rise, from 58 inpatients in October to 143 in November, to about 100 through the first half of December. On Tuesday the hospital had a single-day high census of 53 COVID-positive inpatients.
Tom Charles, Mount Nittany Health senior vice president for system development, told State College Borough Council on Monday night that continuing preventative measures is important to drive down cases and hospitalizations.
‘It’s important for people to understand that, to be very hopeful about where eventually the vaccine will get us, but to realize this is not going to simply evaporate on its own in a short period of time,’ he said.
‘The important thing is for us to get these case numbers down to a point where it’s not spreading so pervasively in the community. You have to be honest; it’s behavioral change that will get these numbers down and that is just the simple fact of the matter, even though we wish it wasn’t.’
