HARRISBURG – Members of the Wolf Administration announced Thursday additional details for teachers and childcare workers to be vaccinated.
PEMA Director Randy Padfield says each Intermediate Unit (IU) will be coordinating scheduling with public and private schools in their jurisdiction,”Each school will be provided with a specific schedule of available appointments, so their educators and support staff can schedule appointments. All appointments will be scheduled using an online scheduling tool, which will make it easier to regulate the flow of individuals through the clinic to provide for maximum efficiency.”
From there, school workers will receive instructions from their employer.
Padfield says most clinics will be located at the main IU buildings and open daily and on weekends,”Vaccine for these sites will be provided from regional state health centers located throughout the state that have the ability to store the vaccine in the quantities needed to support the clinics. The vast majority of the clinics will be able to provide up to 500 vaccinations a day, with some clinics and IUs with larger numbers of educators and support staff being able to support up to 1,000 doses a day.”
Padfield says there could also be multiple or mobile location clinics for districts having a larger geographic coverage area or a higher amount of educators and staff eligible to be vaccinated. The state will also be sending surveys to IUs to distribute to districts to see how many educators and staff actually need to be vaccinated.
Padfield says each clinic will have various stations like any other vaccine clinic – a check-in, brief medical screening area, and waiting area after being vaccinated to check for allergic reactions.
Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam says retail pharmacy partners are getting to work on vaccine distributions for childcare workers,”Starting as soon as today (Thursday), our retail pharmacy partners, Rite Aid, TopCo, and Walmart will begin these efforts. We are using local connections and trusted local providers to make this happen.”
She says childcare workers will be contacted by their local retail pharmacy to schedule an appointment. Beam says the state is providing contact information to pharmacies for licensed childcare facilities.
