Harrisburg, PA - Today, the Pennsylvania Department of Health provided a weekly COVID-19 update and new information about the value of getting vaccinated during pregnancy.
“The Department of Health continues to encourage everyone ages 5 and older to get up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations,” Acting Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter said. “For everyone 12 and over, that includes getting a booster dose which is proven to help avoid severe illness and hospitalization.”
Meanwhile, a new study supports the effectiveness of the vaccine for infants whose mothers were vaccinated while pregnant.
“The study finds that infants were 60 percent less likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19 in the first six months of life if their mother was vaccinated during pregnancy,” Klinepeter added. “This provides additional evidence that people who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant should get vaccinated.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and professional medical organizations, like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, recommend COVID-19 vaccination at any point in pregnancy.
Vaccines are free and available across the state through vaccines.gov.
“If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, planning to get pregnant now or in the future, get vaccinated and stay up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines to help protect yourself and your baby,” Klinepeter said. That’s why I made the choice to protect myself and my son by getting a booster dose when I was eight weeks pregnant.”
Weekly Update
Pennsylvania continues to make critical strides in getting eligible residents vaccinated by working closely with vaccine providers, grassroots organizations, and relevant stakeholders to ensure all Pennsylvanians have access to the COVID-19 vaccine. According to the CDC, as of Monday, Feb. 21, 76.2% of Pennsylvanians age 18 and older are fully vaccinated. This percentage reflects all 67 counties in Pennsylvania.
If you or your loved ones are not yet vaccinated, now is the time to get fully vaccinated, get boosted and get children ages 5–18 vaccinated. Visit vaccines.gov to find a vaccine provider near you to schedule your vaccine appointment.
This week, the Department of Health analyzed the following vaccine data within its 66-county vaccine jurisdiction; Philadelphia is a separate vaccine jurisdiction:
· 85,760 vaccine doses were administered in the past week, including:
o 33,853 booster doses administered in the past week.
o 9,635 pediatric doses administered in the past week.
· The total number of vaccines administered dropped by 21.6% compared to the previous week.
Here is a statewide summary of COVID-19 trends over the past 7 days Monday, Feb. 14 –Sunday, Feb. 20:
· The daily average number of cases was 2,608.
· The CDC ranks Pennsylvania 27th in excess deaths related to COVID-19.
· The number of people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 on Monday, Feb. 21 was 27 percent lower than on Feb. 14. The percent of available adult ICU beds rose to 22.6% and available pediatric ICU beds fell to 10.9%.
o Approximately 9.9% of all staffed adult ICU beds are COVID-19 patients.
o 25.8% of all ventilators statewide are in use.
The Department of Health continues to provide the public with extensive and frequently updated data on both the COVID-19 dashboard and the vaccine dashboard. Both dashboards provide an interactive experience for the user to review statewide and local-level data updated daily.
The department also provides a dashboard showing COVID-19 data for skilled nursing homes including case counts, deaths and vaccination status for residents and staff.
For more information on the Department of Health’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, visit here.
To stay informed about the Wolf Administration’s vaccination efforts, the latest federal vaccine news, and answers to pressing vaccine questions, visit the Unite Against COVID Weekly Update.
MEDIA CONTACT: Mark O誰eill - ra-dhpressoffice@pa.gov
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