Almost all elderly people in Allegheny County are at least partially vaccinated against covid, health official says

Almost all of the elderly in Allegheny County are at least partially vaccinated against covid-19, a virus that has ravaged the elderly population, including those in healthcare facilities, both locally and nationally, have officials said.

Allegheny County Health Director Dr Debra Bogen noted the milestone after a visit to the UPMC Vaccine and Testing Clinic in the South Side of Pittsburgh, saying “nearly 100%” of residents aged 65 and over received at least one injection.

“These vaccines really work,” Bogen said. “They are what we really need to beat this virus. “

Statewide, healthcare providers have administered more than 11.2 million vaccines, and nearly 61% of all Pennsylvanians have received their first dose. About 57.5% of residents over 18 are fully immunized.

The state Department of Health’s Vaccine Data Dashboard breaks down age groups narrower than “65 and over.” The breakdown for partial and complete vaccinations for all Pennsylvanians over 65 is:

• 65-69 years: 19.4% partially covered, 68% fully covered
• 70-74 years: 20.2% partially covered, 72.3% fully covered
• 75-79 years: 15.6% partially covered, 70.9% fully covered
• 80-84 years: 15.4% partially covered, 71.1% fully covered
• 85 years and over: 15.4% partially covered, 65.4% fully covered.

In Westmoreland County, the breakdown is:

• 65-69 years: 17% partially covered, 67.6% fully covered
• 70-74 years: 19% partially covered, 70.4% fully covered
• 75-79 years: 14.2% partially covered, 67.2% fully covered
• 80-84 years: 14.2% partially covered, 69.4% fully covered
• 85 and over: 14.5% fully covered, 66.7% fully covered

Gov. Tom Wolf said last month he would lift the state’s mask mandate when 70% of adults are fully vaccinated, and this has since been updated to 70% fully vaccinated or June 28 – according to the first possibility.

Acting GP Dr Denise Johnson, who also visited the South Side clinic, said she believed the state could still reach the 70% threshold by June 28.

“It really depends on whether the Pennsylvanians continue (to get vaccinated) at the rate that we have seen,” she said.

Even with that benchmark in sight, she said, the surge in vaccinations will not stop.

“We know there are some areas where the immunization rate is lower than Pennsylvania’s overall count,” Johnson said. “We are not going to stop when we reach that number.”

People are still getting sick, she said, and people are still dying.

The health ministry on Tuesday reported 453 new cases of the virus, bringing the running total to more than 1.21 million. Just over 500 people were hospitalized statewide and 130 were in intensive care. Twenty-four other deaths have been reported, for a total of 27,514.

UPMC chief medical officer Dr Donald Yealy said the “vast majority” of people admitted to UPMC hospitals for covid-19 are not or not fully vaccinated. He said sometimes there are people who are fully vaccinated who are hospitalized with the virus, so called breakthrough cases.

“We knew it would happen,” he said. “That doesn’t mean it’s a failure of vaccines in general. This can happen for many different reasons. Most of these people have another underlying illness that makes it easy to understand why, and they are still doing better than what we have seen before. “