Child care workers included in state’s plan to offer educators COVID-19 vaccines
Child care workers will be offered COVID-19 vaccines under the state’s plan to vaccinate public and private schoolteachers and educational support staffs.
The child care employees will be vaccinated separately using the one-dose Johnson & Johnson drug under the federal COVID-19 pharmacy partnership, the state Health Department said Thursday.
“This is not just for teachers,” acting state Health Secretary Alison Beam said Thursday while providing more details on the Johnson & Johnson rollout.
The Pennsylvania National Guard will be deployed to Intermediate Units beginning March 10, under short orders to set up clinics for school employees, said Randy Padfield, director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. The clinics will have the capability to distribute 500 doses of the vaccine per day.
There will be an online scheduling tool for the IU effort that will focus first on early childhood teachers and those dealing with disabled or English-as-a-second language students.
Janitors, cafeteria workers, teacher aides and bus drivers will be eligible for a vaccine, Beam said.
No one will be mandated to be vaccinated. Local school boards will decide how schools will provide educations, said Noe Ortega, acting secretary of the state Department of Education.
The IUs will work with districts to identify staff members who are interesting in receiving a vaccine.
The state Health Department will notify the retail pharmacies – Walmart, Rite Aid and Topco – about the state-licensed child care facilities to begin scheduling appointments.
The pharmacy doses are not included in the 94,600 J&J vaccines the state will use to begin vaccinating about 200,000 school employees.
Despite evidence the vaccines are helping to slow the spread of the virus, the state still wants Pennsylvanians to wear masks in public and practice social distancing, Beam said.
“Mask-wearing is abundantly important,” she said.
The virus has killed 24,219 state residents since March after 50 new statewide deaths were announced Thursday, including one in Washington County.
The state reported 3,028 new cases of the virus, taking the cumulative total to 941,439.
Washington County reported 38 new cases, bringing its total to 13,833. Greene’s case-count grew by nine to 2,693. Fayette saw 33 new cases added to its total of 10,561.