Hello and welcome PBS39 and WLVT community update Coronavirus.

It's brought you with help from our community partner Lehigh Valley Health Network.

We're coming you live from the PPE Public Media Center in Bethlehem.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Our guests today include an infectious disease specialist.

We also have the director of the authority that runs Lehigh Vally.

International Airports will be meeting them in just a moment.

If you have a question you can give a call.

The phone number is 4 8 4 8 2 1 0 0 0 8.

Our guest will answer some of those questions live.

Plus, her daily coronavirus updates.

Be sure to sign up for our newsletter.

You can do that at our website coronavirus Lehigh Valley.

.Org.

You can find helpful information there in both English and Spanish.

Now let's get a look at today's top headlines.

The number of Pennsylvanians hospitalized fell below 5000 today for the first time in weeks.

But January is on pace to be the deadliest month yet.

The State Department of Health today reported 6047 new coronavirus cases and two 115 more deaths.

That brings the totals to nearly 755,000 cases and 18,900 and 57 deaths More than 80% of residents at Greyscale, the Northampton County Nursing Home, have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

The county yesterday updated its figures.

So far, 42% of employees have been vaccinated.

Grace Diehl is one of the state's largest nursing homes with 535 residents and more than 600 employees.

The Allentown School District is staying fully remote until at least mid April.

The school board says it is working to develop a hybrid instructional model that would combine in-person and remote learning, but that wouldn't be available until at least the last quarter of the school year.

All 18,000 Allentown students have used remote learning since the start of the school year.

Across the country, many senior citizens are scrambling to figure out how to sign up to get a vaccine.

States and health networks are asking people to make appointments online.

That's not ideal for the less tech savvy or some people who don't have internet access or even a computer at all.

Health officials are looking for solutions like partnering with other community groups.

Let's meet our guests.

Dr Mark, analysis, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Lehigh Valley Health Network.

He has been with us before to answer questions about the virus and vaccine.

It's great to have you here again.

I'd also like to welcome Thomas Stout.

He is the executive director of the Lehigh Northampton Airport Authority, the agency that runs Lehigh Valley International Airport.

Thank you for being here as well.

Grateful to see both of you here.

But we are going to talk to Mr Sout in just a moment.

First, we'd like to start with a doctor this afternoon.

Doctor, it's been almost a month since the first vaccine started going to frontline health care workers in the Lehigh Valley.

Now can you give us an update?

How many vaccines has LVHN given and who's getting them at this stage in the game?

Thank you.

You.

Currently given as they are about 28,000 doses of the vaccines represents about 26,000 25 6000 individuals.

So most of the we're following the state guidance very, very closely and that's where we take our lead from.

So in the Phase 1, a we vaccinated all the patient caring providers and our network, as many as we could as quickly as we could.

So phase one A and we're hoping to move soon officially to phase one.

The once we get the green light from the department helps.

Sure.

And across the nation there have been delays in administering the vaccines, vaccines being delivered but not administered.

Is that the case around here?

Are there as many vaccines being administered as there are being delivered or would you like to see more being administered?

We'd always like to see more being administered to be on it, but a lot of the issue here is more supply.

So every week we request added vaccine shipments Lehigh Valley malaise is verbally adept at managing vaccination.

As you know, for many years we have managed to drive through influenza vaccine site at Dawnie Coca-Cola Park.

So we're pretty comfortable vaccinating large numbers of individuals at high risk on a daily basis up to about a little bit over 3000 on a given day.

Your recently this week.

So we don't want to waste any doses if there's a appropriate candidate that is eligible and registered.

We will use that vaccine to get a shot.

ARM.

Sure.

And we did learn this week like you just said, that LVHN is going to have a mass vaccination site at Dorney Park and Wild Water Kingdom.

What do we need to know about that?

When is that happening?

Who can come and get vaccinated?

When can the general public just drive up and have that happen?

.

It's an excellent question.

And again, a lot of that who will be Pine Grove Penn State guidance Penn State Let us move to phase one.

A see and ultimately general public that we will stay consistent for that guidance.

I can't give you a specific date for the Dorney Park opening.

We have to request enough volume to have ample stock there.

Very.

As you know, the supply chain is very tenuous in terms of cold.

And we have to be very careful that we have supply to vaccinate the individual.

And it's very, very important that we when we do go along with this that we get everybody to register online.

So we know how much we'll be expecting on any given day at this point.

What do you know about the shipments?

Are they coming daily, weekly, biweekly?

How often are getting them now?

Well, and will that be determined?

Will that be the same when it comes to the Dorney Park mass vaccinations?

Your you know, it's good question.

Re re re request our volumes weekly based on, you know, our anticipated demand based on our cheering internally, which matches the state fazing, we are going to request a larger number vaccines for Doretti vaccine campaign.

It's all dependent on whether we can actually get that supply.

So you may have heard there's some recent information about the federal stock and how that all back us reach.

We don't know.

We're very hopeful that we get what we can.

We will administer what we get.

Sure.

And when it comes to mass vaccinations, is it something you know, this is something that you do with flu shots.

Are these vaccines similar to that or is there a longer waiting period once you get that shot, you know, is it something you can just drive up to or do you get out of your car and maybe wait a little bit longer?

Now we have actually we'll have 12 planes, but it is a very good question because this shot is different based on the emergency use criteria for the two vaccines.

Pfizer Moderna.

We have to have patients wait 15 minutes minimum up to 30.

It's in higher risk situations so that is where it's different than the influenza vaccine.

Very similar will be a shot in the shoulder and it's an inactivated vaccine, but there is a waiting period so that will limit the volume and throughput.

Sure.

Let's just talk about generally vaccinating the employees at LVHN.

Where do you stand right now when it comes to employees have most of the employees receive their first vaccine and how many have received their second so far?

So from what I know, approximately 60, 64% of our colleagues have been vaccinated.

It's not Nandy at this time.

We are very happy that was the initial take and we're still open to all Phase 1.

So employees can continue to be vaccinated as long as we have vaccine in terms of second vaccination.

We have a probably will hit 20%.

Those we'll have second vaccine by the end of today.

So and one week from that time period, those people are considered immune based on the studies that have been done on the vaccines.

Doctor.

Now let's talk about hospitalizations.

We just heard in their headline that the number of people who are hospitalized in Pennsylvania is down right now to the lowest it's been in six weeks.

Are you seeing the same thing at Lehigh Valley Health Network hospitals in the area as well or hospitals extremely well.

And when you compare to April, the volumes are twice as high.

We opened new units which the emissions appear to be flattened.

In the past week, though, tests are going up.

It's always a very dynamic situation, so I can't exactly predict what next offering our units are very full, but relative to the total hospital population, we're kind of fear that it's a smaller percent than it was the April wave.

Shaw and D. Are you hearing or seeing that people are starting to let down their guard because people are beginning to get vaccinated?

Or do you have a reminder for them or you know, where should people stand on this?

When will it be safe to go out and almost live a semi-normal life?

Not now.

So it's a great reminder that even despite immunization, it's going to take a large number of people immunized.

And remember that this vaccine when I say immune, it's about 95% effective.

So it's not a 100%.

And we still don't know if individual's that or vaccinated carried the virus, asymptomatic, tensely transmit.

So that's all the reason to again, emphasize masking social% distancing.

And until the numbers of new cases hospitalizations go down to an extremely low level, we're probably going to see a lot of the normal guidance on social distancing.

Sure.

We do have a viewer question here.

This is Martha from Mertztown.

She wants to know, is it possible to get the virus after you've been vaccinated.

Is it is you can't get the virus from the vaccine?

That's important.

Emphasize our entire group got the vaccine.

We're not confident that this is safe and effective.

Now, I think she may.

Why can you catch the virus after you're vaccinated?

With two doses?

And the answer is yes.

It's not 100%, but the odds that are markedly reduced, as I said about 95% effectiveness with either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine and also more importantly, these vaccines probably prevent for those that do get infected.

Severe disease due to Covid-19.

So it's going to markedly reduce the likelihood large numbers of hospitalization if the public does take up the vaccine.

Do we know if you can spread the virus after you've gotten the vaccine?

Do we know anything about that yet?

Yes, there's some evidence in the Moderna trial that there was a reduction, a viral shedding the before and after the first dose.

But it wasn't 100% that those studies are ongoing.

So the answer is we don't fully know whether people, those individuals vaccinated.

And briefly, Kerry and transmat, we're hopeful that it's going to be much less than an unvaccinated person.

We'll have to wait and see.

Sure.

Dr., can we have another viewer question?

This is from Edwina in Philadelphia.

She's asking, should what should I do if I don't have a computer?

But I want to get vaccinated.

What outlets are available for people to sign up for those vaccines?

Excellent question.

So Lehigh Valley, we the Wordle people can look at my LVHN and slash vaccine and find out about ways you can actually if you don't have a computer and can't log into our health portal which is old LVHN then you can actually call.

They have a care center or to carers and try and schedule that way and you'll be scheduled if there's slots available.

The other option is call your local practice.

I know they're out educating all of their practices now on how to schedule individuals based on their age and co-morbidities, etc So there are other options out there.

Sure.

Doctor, can I ask when it comes to the vaccine, there's also been a lot of questions when it comes to women who are pregnant.

What are the guidelines for them?

Should they be vaccinated?

Should they wait until after the baby is born?

What's your recommendation?

It's an excellent question and one we don't fully know the answer to Forge.

One of the downsides of the current trials is that they did not roll pregnant women or nursing women in those trials.

The vaccine is not to be discouraged for pregnant women.

I've talked to many oby providers.

And I think there is uniform agreement that is the patient is pregnant and at least beyond the first trimester and they see themselves high risk.

For example, they have a job that puts them out of the public or they have potential exposures to public outside of a job that they should consider the vaccine.

There is a registry where we are falling pregnant women who get vaccinated.

So pretty soon we will know how well the vaccine works in pregnancy for the individual.

I suppose it's in the very first part of pregnancy and your only trimester first trimester and there at home they're completely safe.

They don't see other individuals.

It could be prudent to wait a little maybe until the early second trimester.

These are answers.

Hopefully future drug trials will enroll pregnant women and safely vaccinate and study so we know the answers sooner than we do now.

Sure.

Dr Kenhorst, we've heard about this more contagious strain of the coronavirus.

First we heard about it from someone will came what we know is that we came from over seas, but somewhere out west.

And now today there are reports that someone in the Philadelphia area has been diagnosed with this more contagious strain.

What do you know about it?

What should the general public public know about it at this point?

This is probably a part of normal viral evolution viruses, especially RNA viruses like the Covid-19 viruses.

They mutate constantly.

They are always doing this.

This is how they survive.

This is not a mutation against the vaccine and it's important to stress that the British variant for example, we know that it took several genes changes to make that very and now that we know about it, we know that it is probably more transmissible.

But what we know is it doesn't appear to be more severe and importantly, they've already studied with some of the serum from the vaccine studies and showed that the vaccine or the immunized patients do neutralize this virus.

So it does look like at least these are only mutants.

We'll be covered by the vaccines that are currently available.

All right.

Dr Mark Canal+ of Lehigh Valley Health Network, thank you so much for checking in with us today.

Continue this community update on coronavirus on PBS39.

And you can hear the rebroadcast on the radio tonight, 9:30 on WLVT News.

91 three FM Let's bring in our next guest.

Thomas Stout leads the Lehigh Northampton Airport Authority.

These, of course, have been trying times for everyone.

The travel industry has been crippled by the lockdowns, restrictions and it began last year as the airport was riding a wave of increasing passenger traffic.

Great to have you this afternoon, Mr Stout.

Can you put into perspective how this pandemic has affected passenger volume and airport operation in general overall, Britney?

Thanks for having me on the show today.

You know, certainly this pandemic is nothing like the aviation industry has seen before.

This really was one of the first industries affected globaly, I believe probably one of the last industries to recover.

And when we put things in perspective as we closed out 2012 20 calendar year looking at total passenger volumes through the we're seeing numbers that are actually around the 1972 levels.

So if that gives you some sense of perspective, it's far off of the nearly a million passengers that we had welcomed in 2019 and we were at 390,000 passengers this past year.

Wow.

So definitely decrease but there still are people who are traveling.

Can you please talk to me about some of the safety measures that have been set in place at the airport to keep passengers who are traveling safe?

Certainly we were looking at this sort of virus that we were hearing about from China Wayback in January of 2020 and starting to notify our staff and really paying close attention to safety protocols and measures early on.

And really a lot of the things we've implemented, things that folks are pretty accustomed to seeing the plexiglass shields and other barriers at locations, ticket counters and security podiums, social distancing, of course, throughout the facility I think we added nearly 800 floor decals and marking all of those socially distant cues and spaces for people.

But I also really think the key piece was the mass requirement.

Certainly that's required anytime you're in the facility.

All air carriers that fly out Lehigh Valley International Airport also mandate the use of masks for travelers over the age of two.

So a very important to bring a mask or have a face covering your nose and mouth when you're in the facility.

So beyond that, there's some electrostatic floggers that we're using in the facility to help disinfect areas and using some anti-microbial surface protected and other approved antibacterial compounds on the disinfecting properties that we're using on other commonly touched surfaces and devices such as wheelchairs or luggage carts.

So a number of pretty standard facilities treatments there.

And I think working hard, I think the biggest piece for us is communication of information.

Keep people safe.

Sure.

And there are still travel restrictions and protocols for when people are flying in and out of Pennsylvania and others of the state.

But something that has helped that opened up at the airport just a few weeks ago, that's the rapid testing site.

Can you tell us a little bit about that and how that helps people who are traveling?

Absolutely.

So as we know back in November 20, we saw the department of Health or the state publish the order on travel for folks who are returning to Pennsylvania.

And whether you're a resident or just visiting the state, the requirement says, hey, well, you've got to have your test result 72 hours prior to your return or you've got a quarantine for 10 days upon arriving in Pennsylvania.

So one of the ways that you can shorten that quarantine period is if you are returning and you didn't get your test in advance.

We now have a testing site on airport and it's essentially a 15 minute results.

So it's a drive through testing facility that provides a FDA approved antigen or antibody test so you can get a 15 minute result by understanding the PCR testing will be available very soon and that will provide a day 24 hour results.

So once you have a negative test result, once you return Pennsylvania, you can stop your quarantine period.

So I think having a quick result and a way to do that right at the airport provides travelers some some additional options.

So I do want to point out that does have a cost associated with it opposed to some of the other testing sites that have are health care facility that take a little bit longer that insurance covers.

But I did want to point that out.

So what's the volume been like Are people using it?

And I also want to point out that that's not just for passengers, it's for the entire community.

Correct?

Those correct.

It's a service for the whole community.

It's one of the reasons we were excited about the location in our long term parking area.

Certainly.

You know, it's an area that you never have to leave your car as you approach the airport.

You can drive in.

It's a self-test that's administered right there.

And you get the result pushed to your phone.

So very easy to do that.

The community has really been excited about this testing facility.

Again, there is a cost to do that.

So you would need a credit card, you would need a cell phone to get that result.

And if you're over 16, you'll need your driver's license for your identification.

But that great, great service, again, as you point out, not just for flying public but for members of the community in general.

Sure.

Obviously, this is very different than 9/11.

But I want to bring that up because you did work in the airports facility during that time.

Compare this to then.

Are they even comparing both some of the safety measures that were put into place and the amount of safety measures that had to go in place?

From your experience, what is this compared to that?

Absolutely.

Certainly 9/11 had a very particular impact on aviation.

But it was a very, very much a different emergency altogether and certainly something that, you know, is very, very different from what we're seeing today.

And this is a very long term, long lasting effect.

Certainly we're dealing with more of an invisible threat.

And that's certainly a whole different approach.

And I think the other thing that's interesting is, you know, airports really didn't have nationally endemic plans.

And so what we're finding in the United States is this was an area that we were writing the plan as we were using it and deploying it.

So this is something that was really not foreseen in terms of the US.

I think you've seen other countries that aviation has impacted as a result of of different contagions.

But certainly in the United States, this is the first time we've seen something to this scale and it's had a dramatic impact in I think the best most apt description is going about 100 miles an hour and slamming on the brakes.

That's about what this feels like.

And so we are still working on in the process of data time here and making sure right now are our number one priority from the very beginning has keeping all our employees and are the traveling public safe and keeping employees healthy and working?

Sure.

I want to just highlight a positive spot here, silver lining, if you will.

The airport just received a million dollar state grant for the terminal Connector project.

Can you tell us what that is?

And how it will benefit the airport?

Absolutely.

So.

Another very critical project for us and something that we're continuing to move forward in spite of the challenges right now is the terminal connector and that terminal connector project that it's a B also adds additional capacity to our security screening checkpoint.

So taking our checkpoint from the lower level and bringing it up to the ticketing level and taking it from two lanes to four lanes.

Currently the checkpoint doesn't really have capacity to see the at least three to four lanes that it rightfully should have at this point based on current USA standard.

So we want to be able to make sure that we're providing this facility and certainly this will service into the future.

But I think the important elements here that this serves us today.

When we think about the capacity of our checkpoint and our queuing space today, it's really been impacted significantly by social distancing.

And when we spread out those passenger use, we really have much the same problem we had prior to the pandemic and social distancing.

So it really provides a much needed service for the region.

It's certainly allows us to keep up with providing excellent service that we continue to provide and making sure we can do that well into @the future.

So very important project forward for the community and for the airport.

Char, we just have a few seconds here.

But I just wanted to ask if people are getting ready to book a trip and they're itching to go on vacation or visit a friend.

What should they know when they're coming to the airport?

Absolutely.

So I think we touched on it quickly.

You know, mask is required.

Make sure you're keeping your hands washed and sanitized, particularly after, before and after security screening process.

I would also remind people that one, the things we tend to touch and not think about a lot is our cell phones.

And so, you know, as you're moving through that screening process, maybe using your phone with your electronic boarding pass.

We do have sanitizing wipes throughout civility hands, sanitizing stations.

Don't forget to wipe down your cell phone and make sure you're certainly doing your part to stay mass to save socially distance and keep your hands clean or sanitize.

Absolutely.

Tom South from the Lehigh Valley International Airport.

Thank you so much.

For joining us.

We want to thank you for watching.

You can join Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 4pm for PBS39.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Stay safe.