State Opens Vaccines to Targeted 1B Groups And Sets Dates for ALL Adults to be Vaccinated

(Honesdale, March 31, 2021)… As of today, Wayne Memorial Community Health Centers (WMCHC) and Wayne Memorial Hospital will officially be allowed to expand their vaccine distribution to include a special group of frontline workers in the state’s 1B group. Up until now, most vaccine providers could vaccinate only those who met the state’s 1A criteria. The Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) calls the targeted group part of its “special initiative,” a project which earlier expanded vaccine distribution to educators.
Under the new plan, WMCHC and other providers can vaccinate these 1B groups immediately:
• Law enforcement – police, sheriffs, deputies, constables, corrections officers and staff, probation and parole staff
• Firefighters – career and volunteer
• Grocery store workers – all supermarket and grocery store workers. This does not include those who work in super centers, convenience stores, general retail with small food sale offerings, beverage stores and farmers’ markets.
• Food and Agriculture workers – all food processing company employees, including meat, poultry and diary processing, fresh fruit and vegetable packing operations and food manufacturing. This also includes all farmworkers, farm operators, and farm managers.
Governor Wolf announced shortly after the above that the rest of adults in 1B, 1C and Phase 2 will be eligible to start scheduling vaccine appointments shortly:
• April 5 – all residents in Phase 1B
• April 12 – all residents in Phase 1C
• April 19 – all residents
Governor Wolf said the state’s move was a direct response to President Biden’s “bold plan…with a goal of making very American adult eligible to receive a vaccine by May 1st.
“This is a terrific,” said WMCHC Executive Director Frederick Jackson, “and we will do all that we can to assure that we can meet these dates as our vaccine supplies are increased.”
WMCHC recently announced it would distribute 10,000 vaccines in the next month at clinics throughout its service area – in Wayne County, Pike County, Forest City in Susquehanna County and Carbondale in Lackawanna County. For a list of those clinics and instructions on how to create an account and, separately, register for a vaccine when you are eligible, visit COVID Vaccine Registration – Wayne Memorial Hospital (wmh.org).
According to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and the DOH, nearly 1 million Pennsylvanians age 65 and older have received a first dose of vaccine as of today. The number of Phase 1A eligible Pennsylvanians with a first dose now tops 3 million. More than 72,000 Pennsylvanians are being vaccinated every day.
Photo: Thomas Bajadek, Honesdale, receives a COVID-19 vaccine from Sarah Mickel, LPN at a Wayne Memorial Community Health Center clinic at the former Rusty Palmer site in Honesdale on March 19th. More clinics are planned for this same site and elsewhere in April. Visit COVID Vaccine Registration – Wayne Memorial Hospital (wmh.org) for information.