Abington Hospital To Receive Coronavirus Vaccine This Week

Justin Heinze
·2 min read

ABINGTON, PA — Abington Memorial Hospital is among six hospitals across Montgomery County to receive the first shipments of the new Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, as the largest inoculation campaign in the history of the country gets underway.

The six county hospitals receiving doses are among 83 statewide. All told, Pennsylvania hospitals will receive 97,500 Pfizer doses this week, Health Secretary Rachel Levine said. More shipments are on the way.

RELATED: The Road To Herd Immunity: Montco Plans For Vaccine Challenges

The other county hospitals receiving shipments include:

  • Einstein Medical Center Montgomery, East Norriton

  • Lankenau Medical Center, Wynnewood

  • Norristown State Hospital

  • Pottstown Hospital

  • Suburban Community Hospital, East Norriton

It's not clear how much each individual hospital will receive. Should the Moderna vaccine be approved in the coming days, shipments of those doses are also expected shortly in Pennsylvania.

In addition to hospitals, the county is also expecting to receive shipments of the vaccine which it will ultimately disburse at walk up and drive up sites, though the precise timetable for that is unclear.

Officials expressed optimism that this was the "light at the end of the tunnel" of the pandemic.

"I want to underscore the safety and the efficacy of these vaccines," Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh said last week. "They seem to be very good at what they do."

Vaccines will be available in three phases, as outlined by both county and state health departments. This first phase aims to inoculate healthcare workers and first responders. The second phase includes other frontline workers, while the third phase is for individuals over the age of 65 or at high risk for the virus due to underlying conditions.

However, there are numerous challenges facing hospitals and local officials in distribution. Levine called it an "enormous undertaking."

"While we, along with public health officials throughout the country, spent countless hours preparing, this mission is fraught with significant challenges that go well beyond just transporting the vaccine from Point A to Point B," she said.

Among those are the transportation and storage of the vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine in particular requires ultra-cold refrigeration units that are not common. There's also the issue of social resistance to vaccines in general, with many officials saying they will receive the vaccine in public in an effort to build trust.

With reporting from Kara Seymour

This article originally appeared on the Abington Patch