Pa. enlists National Guard to help set up regional vaccine sites; N.J. to ease some COVID-19 restrictions; Pa. teachers will be eligible for vaccinations

Montgomery County has received fewer vaccine doses from the Pennsylvania Department of Health compared to other counties, and Valerie Arkoosh, the chair of the county’s Board of Commissioners, said she doesn’t understand why.

“I’m looking for more transparency. I am looking to understand how these allocation decisions are being made,” Arkoosh said during the county’s weekly COVID-19 briefing Tuesday afternoon

According to an Inquirer analysis of state Health Department data, Montgomery County has received far fewer vaccine doses relative to population than smaller counties in Pennsylvania.

One of the three most populous counties in Pennsylvania with 830,915 residents, Montgomery County ranked 20th in dose rates — 17,667 per 100,000 residents, the analysis showed. Meanwhile, Montour County, 61st in population with just 18,230 residents north of Harrisburg, received 164,153 doses per 100,000 people.

“I do not understand why we’re not getting more doses,” Arkoosh said. “You’ve heard me say every week, since we started getting vaccines, that we are ready to give more, we should be getting more, and I hope very soon that we will be getting more.”

— Rob Tornoe

There are two cases of the new coronavirus variant that emerged in Brazil in a North Jersey county, state officials said during a Wednesday news conference.

These two cases, located in Hudson County, are the first in the state, Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said. The cases are linked and the travel history of those infected is unknown. Officials are investigating, she said.

Persichilli called this strain “relatively uncommon in the United States.” The CDC has reported just 10 instances of this variant in the country as of Feb. 28, with cases in Alaska, Florida, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Minnesota.

There were also reports of other emerging variants in New Jersey, including cases of the U.K. variant in 16 counties, and 34 cases related to a New York strain concentrated in the Northeastern part of the state, Persichilli said.

“While we are concerned about the increase in variant strains, the public health prevention measures we have all been using… are important tools to prevent the spread of this virus,” Persichilli said.

Experts have said these variants only heighten the urgency around the need to vaccinate the population quickly, the Inquirer previously reported.

» READ MORE: Mutations 101: What causes coronavirus mutations and why the vaccines are still good

— Ellie Silverman

A massive drive-through vaccination center being built in King of Prussia hasn’t been promised vaccine doses by the state, Montgomery County Chair Valerie Arkoosh said Wednesday.

Construction began Sunday on the center in the parking lot of a former Babies R Us outside the King of Prussia Mall, under the auspices of COVID-19 testing firm 15toKnow.

“The operators have not been in touch with the county as far as I am aware,” Arkoosh said during the county’s weekly COVID-19 briefing. “And it is my understanding, from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, that they have not been promised any vaccine. So that’s all I know about it.”

— Rob Tornoe

Anticipating an increase in vaccine supplies, Pennsylvania is enlisting the state National Guard to help set up regional inoculation sites.

Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday signed a bill that authorizes the guard to work with the state health department in planning and operating potential sites.

“This service will help further expedite vaccine to Pennsylvanians across the state,” Wolf said.

In advance of Wednesday’s grand opening, members of the military inoculated federal and SEPTA employees on Tuesday at the Pennsylvania Convention Center at the first federally run mass-vaccination clinic moved toward Wednesday’s grand opening.

— Anthony R. Wood

Gov. Phil Murphy announced the easing of more coronavirus restrictions as more residents receive the coronavirus vaccine.

Sleep-away camps will be permitted to reopen this summer and wedding receptions can proceed at 35% of a venue’s indoor capacity up to 150 people indoors or outdoors.

“We expect to be in a much better place this summer,” Murphy said. “Our restaurants are allowing more indoor diners, our sports teams can welcome back some of their die hard fans, and other aspects of life are beginning to feel a little bit more normal.”

The easing of wedding restrictions will go into effect Friday. Murphy said he is making these changes now to give people time to plan for these types of events.

”When you look at summer camps and wedding receptions they have one thing in common, they take months to plan.,” Murphy said. “As we slowly recover we want people to be able to celebrate the good things.”

There have been more than 2.1 million vaccines administered in New Jersey and Murphy anticipates vaccine supplies will “explode” by the end of this month or early next month.

“We will be in a dramatically, quantumly, different place. So please please please have patience,” Murphy said. “One year in we can finally see the light of a new day beginning to break on the horizon.”

— Ellie Silverman

Montgomery County plans to open a third mass vaccination site as shipments of the vaccine stabilize.

The new site will be located near the Willow Grove Mall, and officials are optimistic it will be able to open next week, said Valerie Arkoosh, chair of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. Arkoosh said the site will ultimately be able to perform upward of 10,000 vaccinations a day, split between first and second doses, but due to current supply constraints would probably start at about 500 a day.

Arkoosh said the county has received all expected shipments of the Moderna vaccine for second doses this week following a commonwealth-wide shortage discovered last month. Montgomery County also successfully switched to the Pfizer vaccine for first doses this week, Arkoosh said.

Through Wednesday, nearly 85,000 residents have receive at least one vaccine dose, nearly 19% of those eligible in Montgomery County. 42,232 country residents have received both doses.

“That is great progress,” Arkoosh said. “Not as fast as any of us wanted, but it’s nice to be getting close to that 20%.”

— Rob Tornoe

At noon, a line stretched down 12th Street outside Center City’s FEMA vaccination site, but it was moving quickly — one vaccine recipient was inside the vast vaccination space within 10 minutes. “That was much quicker than I expected,” laughed a man in line as he passed through a checkpoint.

Clinic workers in yellow vests asked those in line whether they had had an allergic reaction to vaccines before; whether they had COVID-19 symptoms; and whether they had been exposed to or tested positive for the virus in the last two weeks.

Recipients were walked through three rounds of ID checks before their appointments. “Thank you for getting vaccinated with us,” a staffer said, leading people past the last checkpoint in one of the convention center’s main halls — a room the size of a city block.

There, dozens of Marines sat at long tables, with a vaccine recipient waiting on either end of each table for their shot.

Some recipients came in with partners or spouses; an elderly man at one table pointed to the table behind him as a Marine pulled a syringe of the vaccine from a plastic box. “That’s my wife getting her shot over there,” he said.

Afterward, recipients waited in folding chairs spaced out six feet apart for 15 minutes to ensure no one suffered side effects. They tapped on their phones or chatted with family members before lining up to schedule their second shot.

— Aubrey Whelan

The White House said a partnership between pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson and Merck will begin to help boost production of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine by May.

“Over time, we believe that Merck will be able to double the capacity we’ve seen from Johnson & Johnson,” Andy Slavitt, a senior advisor of the White House’s COVID-19 response, said Tuesday.

Johnson & Johnson is under contract to deliver 100 million vaccine doses to the United States by the end of June, but only had about 4 million doses ready to ship this week, the White House said.

Pennsylvania will devote 94,500 Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses to educators beginning next week, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Wednesday.

New Jersey said Monday it was expecting 70,000 doses of the new vaccine, while Philadelphia will receive 13,200 doses. Gov. John Carney said Delaware received 8,000 doses, but said the state won’t receive another shipment of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine until next month.

— Rob Tornoe

Tens of thousands of Pennsylvania teachers and school staff will be eligible to be vaccinated starting next week under a plan announced by Gov. Tom Wolf Wednesday.

The governor’s announcement comes a day after President Joe Biden directed states to prioritize teachers for vaccination as school districts have continued to grapple with how to return more children to classrooms.

“Vaccinating teachers and staff is an important step to getting students back into the classroom safely,” Wolf said at a news conference,

While Philadelphia — which is administering doses independently — has already started vaccinating teachers, most Pennsylvania educators have not yet been eligible for vaccination.

Wolf said the state will devote 94,500 Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses to educators, prioritizing those working with elementary students, students with disabilities and English language learners.

Because the newly approved vaccine can be administered through just one dose, “this actually is an advantage in that we can do this more quickly than we can with a two-dose vaccine,” Wolf said.

All preK-12 schools in Pennsylvania will be allocated doses based on numbers of prioritized staff, which may also include bus drivers and support staff. Vaccinations will start March 10 through Pennsylvania’s Intermediate Units — regional education entities — where the doses will still administered.

Because teachers will receive doses through the new Johnson & Johnson allocation, their prioritization will not slow the vaccination timetable for other Pennsylvania residents, Wolf said.

— Maddie Hanna

President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats have agreed to tighten income limits on individuals receiving $1,400-per-person stimulus checks, the Associated Press reported Wednesday morning.

Washington Post congressional reporter Erica Werner reported that the $1,400 check would now be completely phased out for individuals who earned $80,000 last year, down from $100,000 a year in the original bill passed by the House on Saturday.

Married couples could now earn up to $160,000 a year before the benefit is completely phased out, down from $200,000 a year.

The Senate is expected to vote on a final version of the bill before March 14, when extended federal unemployment benefits expire.

» READ MORE: Stimulus Q&A: Who gets $1,400 and when? Can my stimulus money be garnished for debts?

— Rob Tornoe

Hundreds of people waited in line from Arch to Race Streets outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center Wednesday morning on the first day of the city’s first mass vaccination clinic run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“I’m really excited about getting a shot,” said Rosy Kong-Quee as she waited in the briskly moving line.

The north Philadelphia woman has hypertension, she said, and she registered for an appointment at the site two weeks ago.

“I’m a little anxious about it because everyone is different,” she said. “I don’t know if it’ll give me a fever.”

As people waited, a Navy corpsman in fatigues and a FEMA STAFF shirt walked the line, asking whether people had any flu-like symptoms recently, if people felt well enough to receive a shot, or if people had appointments.

The site aims to provide doses to 6,000 people a day.

— Jason Laughlin

After nearly a year of living on unemployment and navigating the hurdles that come with it, Samantha Spector is going back to work.

Spector, an Aramark employee who works as a server in the club box seats of the Wells Fargo Center, will be one of approximately 400 part-time workers returning to the arena Sunday as it prepares to host Flyers fans for the first time since the coronavirus shut its doors last spring.

“It’s exciting,” said Spector, 40. “It may not be full stands, but at least they’re getting the ball rolling in getting people back to work.”

Philadelphia’s announcement Tuesday that it is loosening restrictions to allow 15% capacity for indoor events and 20% capacity for outdoor events, has reignited hopes in a struggling industry.

The Wells Fargo Center will host 3,100 fans this Sunday at the Flyers’ game against the Washington Capitals. The Phillies, which haven’t had fans at Citizens Bank Park since September 2019, will welcome about 8,800 spectators at the April 1 debut against the Atlanta Braves.

» READ MORE: After a year without jobs, stadium workers are eager to return to the stands with fans

— Ellie Rushing

The COVID-19 vaccine is now available for older adults, and more and more are fully vaccinated. Naturally, the first post-vaccination priority for many grandparents is seeing their grandkids and family. But what would a “safe” hangout look like?

We asked experts to break down common questions, like “Is it OK to go in for a hug when I arrive?” and “Do we need to wear masks if everyone in the family is vaccinated?” The answers aren’t always straightforward, and you’ll find experts are divided on some topics.

One thing that’s agreed upon: Without a doubt, your older relatives are safer once vaccinated. But visiting with some precautions in place is still advised.

“I think you can sleep better at night knowing that your grandparents’ risk is much lower than it used to be,” says Ayiti-Carmel Maharaj-Best, an assistant professor of Clinical Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Pennsylvania. “But people still need to be intentional if they are going to get together. The risk is not zero, and we don’t have enough information yet to know just how close to zero it is.”

» READ MORE: Here’s how to think about risk and minimize it when visiting older relatives

— Grace Dickinson

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

— Rob Tornoe

Administering the coronavirus vaccine Tuesday at folding tables spaced throughout the Pennsylvania Convention Center, members of the military inoculated federal and SEPTA workers as the city’s first federally run mass vaccination clinic moved toward Wednesday’s grand opening.

Workers left with their first doses as city officials toured the center with Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Part of a 10-city pilot program through at least April 30 and run in cooperation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the clinic is set to inoculate up to 6,000 daily, seven days a week, for the next two months.

“It’s an impressive operation that will go a long way to helping us deliver the vaccine to Philadelphians who actually really need it,” Mayor Jim Kenney said. The site, with vaccine supplied by the federal government and military staffing, is “taking the weight off of us” and “gives us the ability to actually use our own vaccine to get into neighborhoods and to set up sites in the community.”

» READ MORE: Philly prepares to open its mass vaccination clinic on Wednesday, and Pa. teachers are poised to join the eligibility list

— Justine McDaniel, Oona Goodin-Smith and Rob Tornoe

COVID-19 cases are no longer dropping in Philadelphia or Pennsylvania, a sudden halt following steady declines in infections since January.

“Our coronavirus case counts this week are similar to what they were the week before, which means we need to be careful,” Philadelphia Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said Tuesday.

In the week that ended Saturday, Farley said the city had an average of 241 confirmed cases per day and a test positivity rate of 3.5%. In the previous week, there was an average of 242 cases per day.

Pennsylvania is averaging 2,612 new COVID-19 cases a day, which has remained largely unchanged for the past 10 days following steady declines since mid-January. Hospitalizations and deaths have continued to decline, but are lagging indicators and tend to follow trends in COVID-19 case numbers.

The commonwealth reported 2,564 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, slightly more than the 2,533 reported in California, which has roughly 27 million more residents. Gov. Tom Wolf eased restrictions on gathering at stadiums and arenas Tuesday, but said he planned to move forward cautiously as cases appear to be plateauing.

“We’re making progress,” Wolf said. “I don’t want to stop that progress, but I also want to get back to life as we would like to see it as quickly as possible.”

— Rob Tornoe and Laura McCrystal