Wolf says all Phase 1A Pennsylvanians can have vaccine appointments by month's end

Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday said he is confident Pennsylvania can meet President Biden’s goal of making every adult eligible for the vaccine by May 1, including a pledge to have appointments made for all Phase 1A residents in the next two weeks and promises to elevate the priority of first responders and grocery store workers.

“We are making all kinds of efforts and taking aggressive steps to meet his timeline, and I think we’re pretty confident we can do that,” he said.

Part of those efforts include the short-term goal of having appointments on the books for everyone in the first phase of the state’s vaccination plan by month’s end. That phase includes health care workers, long-term care residents, anyone over the age of 65 and those aged 16 to 64 with certain health conditions.

“To the extent we can do it, appointments are going to be scheduled by the end of March for those in Phase 1A who want to receive a vaccine — every single one,” he said.

The comments come as some pharmacies have waiting lists that are thousands of people deep and appointments for mass vaccination clinics, like those held by UPMC, Allegheny Health Network and the Allegheny County Health Department, fill up in a matter of minutes.

Wolf said he thinks the state’s supply of vaccine will start to get closer to the level of demand, noting that waiting lists “are a function, mostly, of a lack of supply.

“As we go through the supply increases that we foresee between now and the end of April,” he said, “we should be in a position that Pennsylvania should be very able to meet the goal that President Biden set out last night — that supply and demand will be at a place where anybody who wants to get an appointment will be able to get one.”

Beyond Phase 1A, Wolf said plans are already in the works for how the state will use the coming shipments of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines when they arrive. He said estimates are that at the end of the month, Pennsylvania will receive about 200,000 doses of the single-shot vaccine.

Two weeks out from that shipment, he said, the plan is to divert a portion of them to regional vaccination clinics, which he said will help get them into arms as quickly as possible.

Another portion of the Johnson & Johnson shipments will go to front-line workers not covered in 1A, specifically law enforcement, corrections employees, career and volunteer firefighters, grocery store employees and food-processing and agriculture workers.

“These are the Pennsylvanians who have had no choice but to continue serving our commonwealth during this pandemic,” Wolf said. “These workers, their families and entire communities will be safer if they are vaccinated as quickly as possible.”

Michael Moses, manager of Golden Dawn Supermarket in New Kensington, already is vaccinated because of his age. Still, he has had to watch his ineligible employees worry about the virus and, in some cases, suffer through it.

“We’ve been doing whatever we can — masks, plexiglass, staying away from each other — but that will certainly help a lot,” he said of prioritizing grocery employees sooner rather than later.

Tom Charley, whose family owns and operates three Charley Family Shop ’n Save locations in Greensburg and Murrysville, said the idea of vaccinating grocery store employees in the near future “sounds amazing.”

Some employees work 40 or 50 hours a week, he said, highlighting how often grocery store workers are exposed to the public — and potentially covid-19.

“My associates are, as a lot of the front-line employees are, we are desperate to get a solution,” he said. “The sooner we can get this, the more comfortable and the sooner we can get a feeling of normalcy in our day-to-day lives.”

Throughout the pandemic, Charley said, grocery store workers such as himself have been increasingly stressed and anxious about potentially contracting and spreading covid-19. The vaccine, he said, will alleviate some of that stress.

“As soon as our people can get it, I want them to be able to get it. The sooner the better,” he said.

Charley said he was thankful to see grocery store workers being prioritized for the vaccines.

“I look at it as a recognition of who we are in society,” he said. “We’re the people who get you food. It’s a recognition that these people matter. These are the people who need to be protected or ensured they have the ability to get this vaccine as soon as possible.”

At Community Market in Penn Hills, store manager Cory Bartges said many employees had hoped they would have been prioritized sooner.

“I’m sure all of our employees are anxiously awaiting that time, but we’re kind of in a holding pattern,” he said.

The store’s pharmacies are distributing vaccines to those in Phase 1A of the state’s vaccine distribution plan, but the essential workers who work with the public in the store are still waiting, he said. He said his employees will be anxious to get the vaccine when they are eligible.

Moses, too, said he thought his employees would receive a higher priority. After all, he said, they were among the groups that couldn’t stay home as the crisis took hold.

“I thought we would’ve been moved up earlier because we’re on the front lines,” Moses said. “When the pandemic started, everybody rushed to the grocery store.”

Randy Sprankle, owner of Sprankle’s Neighborhood Market in Leechburg, said it will be a poignant moment for his employees.

“Getting the vaccination is special, regardless of what position they’re in — whether they’re an 80-year-old grandma or a grocery store person,” he said.