Mount Nittany Medical Center opened up its next round of appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations on Tuesday, and as with its first round last week, every slot was quickly booked.
More than 1,200 appointments were filled within 30 minutes on Tuesday afternoon through Mount Nittany Health’s online self-scheduling tool, spokesperson Anissa Ilie said.
After the Pennsylvania Department of Health expanded phase 1A vaccine distribution to include anyone age 65 or older as well as those age 16 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions, Mount Nittany opened its first round of appointment scheduling on Friday.
The more than 2,000 initial appointments available were filled in less than an hour. During that time, more than 20,000 people accessed the site, Tom Charles, Mount Nittany Health executive vice president for system development, said during an update to State College Borough Council on Monday night.
“We understand there’s a lot of frustration with that but it’s simply a supply and demand issue,” Charles said.
Mount Nittany opens appointments only as the Pennsylvania Department of Health confirms supplies. The health system continues to request additional quantities of vaccine and learns every Monday how much it will receive.
Every Tuesday at noon, www.mountnittanycoronavirus.org will be updated with vaccine availability and appointments.
“We have an aggressive plan for continuing to distribute the vaccine as it’s confirmed by DOH, and are doing everything that we can to secure as much as possible, as fast as possible,” Ilie said.
Charles said that requests from providers statewide have been twice as much as what the Department of Health has available to allocate.
Mount Nittany is the county’s largest provider of the vaccine. Since Dec. 18, when it first began vaccinating health care personnel, it has administered more than 4,600 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with another 6,500 doses – both first and second doses – scheduled to be administered through the first week in March, Ilie said.
Charles said that Mount Nittany’s Centre Region partners in providing the vaccination have lengthy waiting lists. Centre Volunteers in Medicine’s waiting list is more than 6,000 people. Boalsburg Apothecary, which has stopped adding names to its list for now, is at more than 4,000 people.
“There are just tremendous shortages of vaccine at the national, state and local level,” Charles said.
“As promising as they are, it’s going to take a long time for vaccinations to have the kind of impact that we’re all hoping they will have… This is not going to happen quickly.”
Some users of Mount Nittany’s online scheduling tool have complained that they get through filling out the registration only to receive a message that an appointment is no longer available.
“We have heard people’s frustration with getting a long way through the form then finding out the appointment isn’t available,” Charles said. “So we are looking for ways to streamline that, but the underlying reality is that that amount of demand for those spots is just very challenging.”
He also urged residents to check with multiple vaccine providers for appointments.
“This is not a competition,” he said. “People from Centre County are getting vaccinated other places; we’re vaccinating people from outside the county. The state of Pennsylvania says if you’re a Pennsylvania resident and meet 1A criteria, then you are eligible to be vaccinated.”
An interactive map of registered COVID-19 providers statewide is available on the Department of Health website.
Mount Nittany officials asked for patience and that community members continue following COVID-19 prevention measures.
“We strongly encourage everyone who is able to get the vaccine, however, the demand far exceeds the current supply that is allotted to us by the DOH, so we are asking for continued patience during this time,” Ilie said.
“It’s important that everyone continues to mask, social distance and practice good hand hygiene.”
Through Monday, 9,999 people in Centre County have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the health department. That includes 7,668 who have received one dose and 2,331 who have received the required two doses.
