Philadelphia won’t follow Pa. in moving forward vaccine timeline; COVID-19 cases surging in Pa. and N.J.

A batch of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine failed quality standards and can’t be used, the drug giant said late Wednesday.

The drugmaker didn’t say how many doses were lost, and it wasn’t clear how the problem would impact future deliveries.

A vaccine ingredient made by Emergent BioSolutions — one of about 10 companies that Johnson & Johnson is using to speed up manufacturing of its recently approved vaccine — did not meet quality standards, J&J said.

J&J said the Emergent BioSolutions factory involved had not yet been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make part of the vaccine. Emergent declined to comment.

J&J had pledged to provide 20 million doses of its vaccine to the U.S. government by the end of March, and 80 million more doses by the end of May. Its statement on the manufacturing problem said it was still planning to deliver 100 million doses by the end of June and was “aiming to deliver those doses by the end of May.”

President Joe Biden has pledged to have enough vaccines for all U.S. adults by the end of May. The U.S. government has ordered enough two-dose shots from Pfizer and Moderna to vaccinate 200 million people to be delivered by late May, plus the 100 million shots from J&J.

A federal official said Wednesday evening the administration’s goal can be met without additional J&J doses.

A J&J spokesman said earlier Wednesday that the company met the end-of-March goal, but did not respond to questions about whether the Emergent plant in Baltimore had been cleared by FDA.

As of Wednesday, J&J had provided about 6.8 million doses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s online vaccine tracker. Some additional doses may not yet have been recorded as delivered, and federal health officials said Wednesday that another 11 million doses of the vaccine would be available for shipments starting on Thursday.

It was not immediately clear where those 11 million doses originated, but J&J has been shipping finished vaccines from its factory in the Netherlands to the U.S.

J&J said it was putting more of its manufacturing and quality experts inside Emergent’s Baltimore factory to supervise production of the COVID-19 vaccine, a move meant to enable delivery of an additional 24 million vaccine doses through April.

The J&J vaccine has been viewed as crucial for vaccination campaigns around the world, because only one shot is required and it can be shipped and stored at standard refrigeration temperatures, unlike some other vials that must be kept frozen. The company also has pledged to sell the vaccine without a profit, but only during the pandemic emergency.

J&J said it still expects to deliver more than 1 billion vaccine doses globally by the end of the year.

The problem with the vaccine batch was first reported by The New York Times. The FDA said it was aware of the situation but declined further comment.

— Associated Press

After a recent spike in COVID-19 cases in Camden County, the Haddonfield school district has postponed fully opening schools until April 19, Superintendent Charles Klaus announced Wednesday.

The district, which enrolls about 2,800 students in grades K to 12, had planned to resume a full in-person learning day for all grade levels beginning April 12, Klaus said. Students still have the option for remote learning, he said.

Klaus said school officials decided to delay the full opening after the county on Wednesday announced 167 new confirmed coronavirus cases. The county has reported 43,119 cases and 1,123 deaths.

”The numbers are right now trending in a negative way,” Klaus said.

Klaus said most parents have said they plan to send their children for full-day in-person learning, which will include lunch. Currently, about 92% of elementary students are in person, 85% of middle schoolers and about 80% of high schoolers, he said.

Klaus said he was optimistic the district would fully open, provided there is not a surge in coronavirus cases when the district closes for spring break on Friday. Classes resume next April 8, next Thursday.

”Obviously, if the numbers keep going up and going up, we will have to reevaluate,” he said.

— Melanie Burney

The University of Pittsburgh issued a shelter-in-place order on Wednesday due to an increase of COVID-19 cases among students and the presence of the B.1.1.7 variant, which is quickly spreading across Pennsylvania and the region.

The order, which goes into effect at 9 p.m. Wednesday, forces students to remain in their rooms or apartments if they’re not attending class, picking up food, working, or exercising.

As of Tuesday, there were 67 active student cases of COVID-19 and nine active cases among faculty and staff, according to the university’s dashboard.

“This action is being taken to respond to a consistent increase in positive cases among students,” the university said in a statement. “Of significant concern is that the increase in positive cases since the end of last week is now among our residence hall students.”

— Rob Tornoe

COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are “spiking” across Montgomery County, just as officials announced an influx in vaccine supply that should help speed up the number of people inoculated.

The county reported 204 new cases on Wednesday and is now averaging 186 new infections a day, County Commission Chair Valerie Arkoosh said during the county’s weekly COVID-19 briefing. That average had dropped below 100 cases a day as recently as mid-March.

The county’s test positivity rate jumped last week above 6%, Arkoosh said, noting that 5% or lower is considered suppression of the virus.

Coronavirus hospitalizations have also jumped up in the county. On Wednesday 177 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Montgomery County, up from 137 this time last week.

“Our numbers are really, really rising very quickly. I’m very concerned about the direction that this pandemic is going,” Arkoosh said. “So the more quickly that we can get shots into arms and make sure that we make those vaccines easily accessible for everybody in our community, that’s how we beat this thing.”

— Rob Tornoe

New Jersey health officials sounded their strongest warnings yet on the state’s increasing coronavirus cases, noting that hospitalizations among younger people are on the rise.

“We are definitely in another wave of this virus,” Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said.

This month has seen a 48% increase in hospitalizations of people ages 40 to 49, which Persichilli attributed to a combination of the increased spread of variants and residents who are starting to exhibit less cautious behavior.

Another likely factor is that more older residents have received vaccines than have younger adults. The state has now fully vaccinated more than 1.5 million people, with another 2.7 having received their first of two doses. The state is set to receive another increase in the number of vaccine doses delivered by the government next week, including more than 131,000 one-dose Johnson & Johnson shots.

The state added 4,586 new cases and 44 deaths. Murphy said the latest modeling indicates that if current trajectories remain the same, cases and hospitalizations in May could be at the same levels as in last December and January. In that case, Murphy said, the pandemic could continue to drag through the summer.

“I’m less worried or horrified by the numbers than I am about the length of the calendar,” he said. “I’m more concerned by how elongated this becomes.”

He urged residents to continue social distancing, mask-wearing and to socialize with others outdoors as much as possible. He asked New Jerseyans to celebrate holidays, like Passover and Easter, responsibly.

“We only want chocolate bunnies, jelly beans and peeps to be what anyone takes home from their Easter egg hunt,” he said. “No taking home COVID-19.”

— Allison Steele

New Jersey officials have launched a new appointment finder on the state’s vaccine website that aggregates information from multiple platforms to direct people to available appointments.

The state’s supply of vaccine is still outstripped by the demand for shots, but “We hope that this new tool will take some of the stress out of your search,” Gov. Phil Murphy said.

The feature, covid19.nj.gov/pages/finder, is accessible through the state’s main coronavirus vaccine portal.

Murphy said he believes the site will also be able to handle a huge surge in traffic that will occur on Monday when those 55 and older become eligible.

“When you add a new group of people, you add, at least temporarily, to the supply-demand imbalance,” he said, “but I’m confident the system will hold up well.”

— Allison Steele

Philadelphia announced 537 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 Wednesday.

New cases of the coronavirus have been increasing in the city, with average daily case counts doubling in the last month. Officials have warned residents to continue social distancing and wearing masks and have said that ongoing vaccinations alone cannot stop this surge.

The city also announced 11 additional deaths. A total of 3,270 residents have now died of the coronavirus.

As of Wednesday, there were 446 coronavirus patients in Philadelphia hospitals, with 50 of them on ventilators.

— Laura McCrystal

COVID-19 cases continue to surge upward in Pennsylvania as health experts warn of a fourth wave of new infections, even as vaccinations continue to increase.

The Department of Health reported 4,557 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, and the commonwealth is now averaging more than 4,000 infections a day over the past seven days, according to an Inquirer analysis. That’s an increase of 57% over the past two weeks.

The rise is being driven in part to the B.1.1.7 variant of the virus, which was first detected in the United Kingdom and is 50% more contagious than the original coronavirus that emerged in China 15 months ago.

On Wednesday, 1,980 residents were hospitalized with COVID-19, up from 1,489 hospitalizations two weeks ago. With more older people vaccinated against the virus, hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the Philadelphia region are getting younger.

Pennsylvania also reported 44 new deaths, driving up the death toll to at least 25,093 people across the commonwealth.

» READ MORE: Latest COVID-19 charts and numbers for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware

— Rob Tornoe

Pennsylvania’s Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam on Wednesday officially announced that the commonwealth plans to make all adults eligible for the coronavirus vaccine on April 19.

Eligible today are, in fact, law enforcement, firefighters, grocery store workers, and food and agriculture workers, Beam confirmed. The whole 1B group will then become eligible on Monday, April 5, she said, and 1C will be eligible a week later, on April 12.

She said at a morning news conference that the supply, bolstered by Johnson & Johnson one-shot doses flowing into the state, will make this timeline feasible.

“We are on a different playing field than we were previously,” Beam said. The increased supply will be “game-changing.”

“We have faced a challenging situation from the aggressive timetable of President Biden,” added State Sen. Art Haywood (D., Montgomery and Philadelphia), a member of the state’s COVID-19 legislative task force. “However, what has happened is that the president has dramatically increased supply, and April and May will be nothing like February and March.”

The number of retail pharmacies receiving vaccine from the federal government will be expanded and will be operating independently of the state. That infusion led the state to decide to back off its plan for mass vaccination clinics in every region; the allotted Johnson & Johnson doses will still be distributed but the process will be different in each region.

Bucks, Delaware, Chester, and Montgomery Counties will have 42,000 shots weekly earmarked to split between them. That’s what the health departments and county leaders had requested, telling the state Department of Health they already had the capacity to give those shots, and could do it in a way that would be more equitable for residents.

» READ MORE: All adults in Pa. eligible for COVID-19 shot on April 19; Philly suburbs will give out J&J shots as state backs off mass clinic plan

— Erin McCarthy and Justine McDaniel

Philadelphia won’t change its vaccine distribution plans based on Pennsylvania’s announcement that all adults in the commonwealth will be eligible to be vaccinated on April 19.

Health Commissioner Thomas Farley “has repeatedly said that we will be opening up to all Philadelphia adults on May 1,” said James Garrow, a health department spokesperson.

Philadelphia, which is among the large American cities responsible for its own distribution plan independent of its state, intends to make people in the Phase 1C group eligible in April, Garrow said. That would include essential workers with a lower risk of exposure, such as sanitation, construction, and IT employees.

— Jason Laughlin

Pennsylvania will make all adults eligible for the coronavirus vaccine on April 19, state officials announced Wednesday morning, with many able to schedule appointments sooner.

Eligible today are law enforcement, firefighters, grocery store workers, and food and agriculture workers. The entire 1B group will be eligible on April 5 and 1C will be eligible April 12.

Wednesday also marks the day by which Pennsylvania vaccine providers must clear their phase 1A waiting lists and make vaccine appointments available to every eligible person who wants one.

» READ MORE: All adults in Pa. eligible for COVID-19 shot on April 19, and some can get appointments sooner

— Justine McDaniel and Erin McCarthy

Through the sleepless nights, the layoffs, closings, reopenings, closings, downsizings, illness, PPE, PPP, and more closings and reopenings, many independent restaurateurs are counting their blessings. They’re still in business, hoping that this next round of federal relief — including the $29 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund grants — will help keep them afloat.

“There’ve been a lot of ups and downs the last year,” said Nicole Marquis, who owns HipCityVeg and the bars Charlie was a sinner and Bar Bombon, and founded the lobbyist group Save Philly Restaurants. “‘Doing well,’ for many, means surviving.”

“Doing well” is relative, of course. If a landlord will allow a tenant to forgo rent or pay a percentage of sales instead of a flat rent, he or she may be doing “well.” If the restaurant was able to turn quickly to takeout or delivery, it may be doing well. If the restaurant was able to keep staff and convert its government loan into an outright grant, it may be doing well.

There was no single magic bullet. Managing outdoor dining helped. Derek Gibbons and Tim Liu of GLU Hospitality closed their bars and turned toward their restaurants, for which they ramped up delivery early on. They bought 15 igloo-like dining bubbles for Germantown Garden Grill at their Vesper Dayclub in Northern Liberties and marketed the heck out of them — creating a financial success out of a bar that used to close after Labor Day.

On a typical Monday night, Gibbons said, the location will feed 200 to 300 people. This new-found revenue is helping offset the lack of income from their bars such as Leda & the Swan, which recently reopened, and Vesper in Center City.

» READ MORE: How these Philadelphia restaurants are not only surviving the pandemic, they’re ‘doing well’

— Michael Klein

When Carmen Palillero had to summon an ambulance for her husband, who had tested positive for the coronavirus, she was worried for his health, of course. But she also worried how she’d explain the late-night 9-1-1 call to her neighbors.

Michael J. Stephen, meanwhile, blamed himself for contracting the coronavirus. And when doctors couldn’t figure out why Jonathan Lipman felt so poorly, he felt guilty for not being able to keep up with his daily responsibilities.

Despite becoming ill with the virus at different points in the pandemic, all three Philadelphia-area residents experienced an infrequently discussed COVID-19 complication: the stigma of getting sick.

“Stigma can go both ways,” said Laura Murray, a clinical psychologist and senior scientist at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. “People talk about it as some people stigmatizing others, but we do it to ourselves. What did I do wrong? Where did I go that I shouldn’t have? Did I not wash my hands enough?”

» READ MORE: Stigma is COVID-19′s silent complication. It has changed since the pandemic’s early days.

— Sarah Gantz

New Jersey students and teachers who have health conditions that put them at a higher risk for COVID-19 will still be offered the choice of remote learning this fall, Gov. Phil Murphy said.

“The last thing we’re going to do is put someone’s life at risk,” Murphy said on Fox 29′s Good Day Philadelphia. “Clearly we have to be respectful of that.”

Last week, Murphy had said that when the state’s school districts fully reopen, parents will not be able to choose remote learning. On Wednesday he said the state will develop guidance for those who need to opt for virtual classes but said “the bar will be high.”

Murphy, 63, also said he planned to sign up online for a vaccine appointment on Monday when he and his wife become eligible along with others who are 55 and older. Murphy had a cancerous tumor removed from his kidney last March but said he has had two six-month checkups that indicated the cancer has not returned, and that he is comfortable with waiting.

“I want to play by the rules,” he said.

New Jersey will open eligibility to all residents by May 1 “at the latest,” Murphy said.

— Allison Steele

Officials in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and at the White House will offer coronavirus updates on Wednesday. Here’s a schedule of how to watch and stream:

— Rob Tornoe

As COVID-19 vaccination rates have jumped in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, a curious thing has happened. After a steep drop from a December peak, cases and hospitalizations have started rising again.

The virus has been especially rough on older people, who often dominated the coronavirus census at hospitals. They were among the first to get vaccines. Now, the proportion of younger patients has increased, several health officials said.

Nitin Puri, who is codirector of critical care at Cooper University Hospital, said the patients he’s seeing now are younger on average than they were before vaccination started, but most have chronic conditions that make COVID-19 more severe, such as obesity or uncontrolled diabetes. The vast majority, he said, would be eligible for vaccination because of those health problems.

“You know what the story is?” he asked. “We’re seeing people who are not getting vaccinated.”

The hospital has about 58 coronavirus cases now. The census doubled abruptly two weeks ago. Before vaccines were approved, 60% to 70% of Cooper’s COVID-19 patients were over 65, Puri said. Now about half are under 65, with many in their 30s and 40s. Puri said he is not seeing patients in their teens and 20s.

» READ MORE: With more older people vaccinated, hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the Philly region are getting younger

— Stacey Burling, Marie McCullough, and Sarah Gantz

COVID-19 cases continue to surge upward in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, even as more and more people continue to be inoculated against the virus.

In Philadelphia, average daily COVID-19 case counts of the coronavirus have doubled in the last month. The city was averaging 488 cases a day as of Saturday, and on Tuesday reported 713 new cases, the most in a single day since the beginning of January.

In Pennsylvania, the Department of Health reported 5,032 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday and is now averaging more than 4,000 infections a day over the past seven days, according to an Inquirer analysis. That’s an increase of 61% over the past two weeks.

In New Jersey, cases are back to where they were in February. The state reported more than 4,300 new infections on Tuesday, and is averaging 4,145 new cases a day over the past seven days. As of Monday, New Jersey has the highest rate of new COVID-19 infections in the country, ahead of New York, Michigan, and Rhode Island.

The rise in new cases comes as more and more people have received vaccinations against the virus. Here’s how each is doing rolling out the vaccine, according to each department of health’s most recent data:

— Rob Tornoe

Pfizer announced Wednesday that its COVID-19 vaccine is safe and strongly protective in kids as young as 12, a step toward possibly beginning shots in this age group before they head back to school in the fall.

Most COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out worldwide are for adults, who are at higher risk from the coronavirus. Pfizer’s vaccine is authorized for ages 16 and older. But vaccinating children of all ages will be critical to stopping the pandemic — and helping schools, at least the upper grades, start to look a little more normal after months of disruption.

In a study of 2,260 U.S. volunteers ages 12 to 15, preliminary data showed there were no cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated adolescents compared to 18 among those given dummy shots, Pfizer reported.

It’s a small study, that hasn’t yet been published, so another important piece of evidence is how well the shots revved up the kids’ immune systems. Researchers reported high levels of virus-fighting antibodies, somewhat higher than were seen in studies of young adults.

Kids had side effects similar to young adults, the company said. The main side effects are pain, fever, chills and fatigue, particularly after the second dose. The study will continue to track participants for two years for more information about long-term protection and safety.

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech in the coming weeks plan to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European regulators to allow emergency use of the shots starting at age 12.

» READ MORE: Pfizer says its COVID-19 vaccine protects younger teens

— Associated Press

The budget hole that Philadelphia had to fill last year as it approved its first budget amid the coronavirus pandemic was relatively large compared with other cities, according to an analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

In a comparison of 13 large cities, Philadelphia’s $750 million shortfall last year was 14.7% of the city’s previous budget — second only to Detroit, which had a shortfall of 17%.

Philadelphia stood out in part for its reliance on the wage-tax revenue, which is more vulnerable during economic downturns than property taxes. Boston relies heavily on property taxes, for example, and had a shortfall for fiscal year 2021 that was only 1.9% of its fiscal year 2020 expenditures, Pew found.

But even with help from the latest federal stimulus package and vaccinations progressing, cities could still face ongoing revenue loss due to the changing nature of work, said Larry Eichel, a senior adviser with the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Philadelphia research and policy initiative.

“This could certainly impact wage-tax revenue in Philadelphia if more suburbanites work from home rather than move into the city,” Eichel said. “It could reduce the value of commercial real estate in a lot of cities and thus the property taxes they pay.”

» READ MORE: Philly’s pandemic budget hole is big compared with other cities

— Laura McCrystal