Mount Nittany Health Expanding COVID-19 Vaccinations
STATE COLLEGE, PA – Mount Nittany Health announced Tuesday that it has received a shipment of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, enabling it to expand its vaccination program.
More than 1,200 employees and medical staff of the health system have already been vaccinated. As Mount Nittany Health continues to vaccinate additional employees and medical staff, it will begin the process of vaccinating community providers based on vaccine availability and current CDC guidelines. Eligible vaccine recipients are being contacted directly and will include healthcare workers from Centre Volunteers in Medicine, Centre County emergency medical personnel, local physicians, dentists and school nurses. In the future, eligibility will be expanded based on CDC and DOH guidelines and availability will be based on vaccine quantities shipped to the health system.
Mount Nittany Health’s COVID-19 vaccine task force, headed by Chief Medical Officer, Nirmal Joshi, MD, FACP, is overseeing the vaccination process. “We are still in a phase where supply is extremely limited, and we can only offer vaccinations to healthcare workers,” Dr. Joshi said. “We are pleased to be able to take this additional step in vaccinating another tier of frontline workers with the vaccine.”
“We have received no guidance yet on when we can expect a sufficient quantity of vaccine to be able to vaccinate others in the community, but we will alert the public through the media, social media and other communications channels as soon as we have that information. We have seen no significant side effects among those who have been vaccinated and encourage as much participation as possible as supplies increase and additional members of the public become eligible for the vaccine.”
“In the meantime,” Dr. Joshi continued, “we urge the public to follow the recommendations we and other public health authorities have been making: wear a mask, wash your hands frequently and avoid gatherings outside your immediate household. The number of COVID hospitalizations at Mount Nittany Medical Center has reached a new high of 66 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 today. We urge everyone need to be responsible and do what they can to stay safe until the vaccine is more widely available.”
