Planning to get the COVID-19 vaccine? Know the rules in your state

PHILADELPHIA - The process of disseminating the COVID-19 vaccine is gaining steam but how fast you can get it and when depends on where you live in the tri-state area.

Pennsylvania received nearly 830,000 doses of the vaccine since it became available last month. But so far only 285,000 have been administered. The state is in Phase 1A for residents in long term care facilities, health care workers, and EMS workers. But there are reported problems with vaccine distribution. 

"We have not heard of vaccines being discarded. We have heard that there are some state providers that have vaccinated people in 1B when they have vaccine available and they don’t have someone in 1A that is readily available. That is absolutely fine for me," said State Health Secretary Rachel Levine.

In New Jersey, Phase 1A is in effect as well, which includes paid and unpaid health care workers and residents and staff of long-term congregate settings. Last week, the state announced police and firefighters are also eligible.

Next will begin phase 1B to include people 75 and older as well as other essential workers like grocery store workers and teachers. A million people have signed up on a website for the Garden State to pre-register for the vaccine. It had so much demand when it launched last week, at one point the site crashed. 

On Monday, Governor Phil Murphy did a walkthrough of a new state vaccination site at Rowan University but vaccine supply is slowing movement here. 

"In addition to the six mega sites that are coming online, we’ve got close to 300 other points of distribution. So when we get the doses we need from the feds we will not be caught flat-footed," he said. 

And finally, if you live in Delaware the state COVID vaccine website shows phase 1A happening now. Vaccination for phase 1B groups is expected to begin by the end of this month. That will include frontline essential workers and people 65 and older.

For more information, please visit the following resources:

https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Vaccine.aspx

https://covid19.nj.gov/pages/vaccine

https://coronavirus.delaware.gov/vaccine/

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