Recovery Resources: vaccines, vaccines and hospitality business grants

State has expanded, will keep expanding vaccine eligibility
Pennsylvania expanded coronavirus vaccine eligibility on April 5 and will expand it twice more in the next two weeks. The state is now in Phase 1B of its vaccination program and will move to Phase 1C on April 12 and Phase 2 on April 19. Currently, people eligible in Phase 1A and Phase 1B can be vaccinated. Eligibility under the phases is as follows:

· Phase 1A — Residents of long-term-care facilities; health-care personnel; persons ages 65 and older; and persons ages 16-64 with high-risk conditions as identified by the Centers for Disease Control.

· Phase 1B — People who live or work in congregate settings not included in Phase 1A; receive home- or community-based services; are first-responders, food, agricultural, Postal Service, manufacturing, grocery store, education or public transit workers; are clergy members or provide essential support for houses of worship; or care for children or adults in early childhood or adult daycare programs.

· Phase 1C — Essential workers in the following sectors: transportation and logistics; water and wastewater; food service; housing construction; finance; information technology; communications and media; energy; legal services; and public safety and health.

· Phase 2 — Everyone else who is 16 or older and doesn’t have a contraindication to the vaccine. The Pennsylvania Department of Health has additional information about eligibility and vaccine providers. The state of Pennsylvania has information about getting the vaccine.

Counties upping vaccination and registration paces
Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties are increasing the rates at which they are able to vaccinate their residents and have their residents schedule appointments to get vaccinated.

· The Chester County Health Department has opened clinics for the upcoming weekend to administer the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. Appointments are available for everyone in Phases 1A, 1B and 1C. People who have registered with the Chester County Health Department, are in Phase 1A, 1B and 1C and need the vaccine can log in to their account and schedule an appointment. People in phase 1A, 1B and 1C who have not registered can get information about the county’s registration system here.

· Montgomery County has begun registering employees in Phases 1B and 1C for vaccination appointments. In order to receive priority registration, employees will need to sign up on the county’s COVID-19 registration page and select their corresponding job category. Employees may also qualify due to age or underlying health condition. The county is currently scheduling for the month of April. Once employees are in the system, they will receive notice that they can schedule an appointment for either the two-dose Pfizer or single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

· Delaware County said an increase in the amount of vaccines it is receiving from the Pennsylvania Department of Health will enable it to boost the number of people it is vaccinating to more than 20,000 per week. The county attributed the increase to increased vaccine production and to the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s decision to reverse its earlier plan to funnel vaccine to what would have been a new mass vaccination site run by the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and instead adopt the vaccination plan preferred by Delaware and the other southeastern Pennsylvania counties, which makes them responsible for the bulk of vaccinations. The county’s COVID-19 website contains links to the county’s vaccine-scheduling page and a list of the more than 30 vaccination sites in the county operated by others.

Vaccine shipments to PA will fall by a third next week
Pennsylvania’s allotment of vaccine doses will fall by a third next week due to an 88 percent decrease in the number of Johnson & Johnson doses assigned to Pennsylvania and Philadelphia combined. The Morning Call reported April 8 that the state will receive 22,800 Johnson & Johnson doses, down from a record 192,700 this week, citing records from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Shipments of the Moderna vaccine will hold steady at 133,800 doses, while shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech formulation will increase by about 3,500 doses to 181,350. The counties had not said how they will be affected by the decrease as of the time this email was compiled. Nationally, shipments of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine are expected to be down 80 percent next week due to manufacturing problems, The Wall Street Journal reported on April 9, citing state officials and federal data as sources. The Journal reported that the federal government has allocated just 700,000 doses of J&J’s vaccine to U.S. states, territories and certain cities and federal agencies next week, down from the 4.9 million doses that were allocated for this week, according to information posted online by the CDC. White House Covid-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said J&J expects to be able to deliver 8 million doses per week by the end of April, according to a report by NBC News.

Hospitality businesses can still apply for CHIRP grants
Montgomery County said April 9 that it’s still accepting grant applications from hospitality businesses for money it was allocated under the state’s COVID-19 Hospitality Industry Recovery Program (CHIRP). Montgomery County was allocated $9.4 million, which it is distributing through its MontcoStrong 2021 Hospitality Industry Recovery program. A video about the MontcoStrong program is available on YouTube. Delaware County has said it will review grant applications received through 3 p.m. on April 12. The county said it expects to receive enough applications from eligible grantees by that time to enable it to distribute its entire allocation of $6.4 million through its Delco Strong program. Chester County has said it will accept applications through April 12. It was allocated $5.9 million and has information about applying for grants available in a recorded webinar.