WILLIAMSPORT – Another medical director in our region is optimistic the end of the pandemic is in sight, and a return to some normalcy could return as early as this summer.
UPMC Medical Director of Infectious Diseases Dr. Rutul Dalal said this during a WKOK Sunrise appearance Thursday, “The goal was and the goal still is that by the end of May, we should have at least 70% of our population inocculated, and only then we are looking forward to a proper…at least a little bit of some normalcy this summer.”
He shares this positive view despite concerns about low vaccine supplies nationwide and particularly in The Valley.
Dr. Dalal says a flood of vaccine supply is likely on the way in the next few weeks, “There have been multiple states who are demanding…that the supplies are not coming in from the federal source, even though the vaccines are ready to be shipped out. To make matters worse, there’s going to be around a 10-day lull in which supplies will be limited coming in from Pfizer because they’re going to undergo renovations to ramp up the speed of production as well.”
Dr. Dalal says a reason supplies are slow right now is there are vaccine shipments going overseas as well, but he still stresses the supply will get better.
In addition, Dr. Dalal says UPMC’s Williamsport campus in-patient rate for the virus has dropped considerably, “We were having an average of about 80-85 patients a day in our in-patient units, that has dropped down right now to the mid-30s. So for the last 10 days or so, thankfully, the surge is coming down almost 50% and hopefully, this continues.”
Hear more analysis from Dr. Dalal on the WKOK Podcast Page.
