Hello and welcome to PB's n W Elba's community update n coronavirus.

It's presented by Capital e Cross and brought to you wh help from our community partner, Lehigh Valley Heah Network.

We are live from the PPE Pc Media Center in Bethlehem.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Our guests today include te president of Lehigh Valley Hospital, Pokeno, which hed its first mass vecsey clinc over the weekend.

We'll also speak with a pharmacist who says his vae supply has been cut off bye state.

Our gsts will b with us in just a moment.

If you have a question, yon give us a call.

The phone numbers four eigt four eight two one zero zeo zero eight.

We'll answer some of your questions live.

Plus four daily coronavirus updates.

Be sure to sign up for our newsletter.

You can do that at our webe coronavirus Lehigh Valleyw.

You can find helpful information in both Englisd Spanish.

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

Pennsylvania is easing itsk mandate to allow people whe fully vaccinated against Covid-19ogether with other vaccinated people without s or social distancing.

State health officials tody said the mask order was red to align with recent guidae from the CDC.

The New rules also apply to vaccinated people gathering with people from a single household who have not been vaccinated but who are considered at low risk of severe disease from the coronavirus.

Vaccine providers have administered more than 4.3 million vaccine doses in Pennsylvania.

That includes over one anda half million people who are fully vaccinated.

The state provided updated figures today as it report, 3920 additional coronavirus cases, a trending decline n hospitalizations has stall, according to the state, wih 1400 people hospitalized be virus.

AstaZeneca says that its Covid-19 vaccine provided strong protection among all adults in its US clinical trial.

The drugmaker announced toy that the vaccine was 79% effective overall at preveg symptomatic cases of the vs and that none of the voluns who were vaccinated were hospitalized or developed severe cases.

The company says its expers found no serious side effes and it will seek FDA approl for emergency authorizatio.

Let's meet our guests toda.

We begin with Elizabeth Wi.

She began her career as a health care nurse and todae is president of Lehigh Valy Hospital.

Pokeno Stroudsburg Monroe County.

Also back with us is Vincet Hartsell of Herzl's Pharmay and Kahrizak a thank you bh so much for joining us.

Vince will be with you in t a few minutes.

We're going to begin with s Wise.

Elizabeth, this was a big weekend for Lehigh Valley Hospital.

Pokeno, thank you so much r being here today.

3000 people received vaccinations Saturday in Me County at a drive thru clic held at Pocono Raceway.

It was the first of what Ea and hopes is more so.

The big question is how dit all go?

So it went eat.

We had so much outpouring m say most people that came e there for about 30 minutes5 of those minutes under observation, 15 minutes eir in line and then they out.

Their vaccination were obsd the event.

We had nine tenths add up d close to 200 volunteers ane were able to get 3000 dosef vaccine.

Elizabeth, we've seen someg like this at Dorney Park before.

Has anything like this ever happenedt Pocono Raceway before?

And Dorne kind of set the e for this?

So we were able to capitale on the experience that we .

O'Dorney in terms of the efficiency Lehigh Valley Hh Network has been doing masu vaccinations for over a de.

So we were able to leverage that and have the first evr mass vaccination event in Monroe County this past Saturday.

So I look at all those cars lined up.

What does it mean for a ren like the Poconos or Monroe unty to havehis available to the people who live thee Gamma So I think many of yr viewers know that Lehigh Vy Hospital, Pokeno was the ft to care for a Covid-19 patt because of our close proxiy to New York and New Jersey.

So we were hit early on in March and we just to have availability of vaccine afr the year that we've had.

I see so many smiles in people's eyes.

I've numerous emails today about w positive things wee and how efficient we were.

And it's just an honor andm humbled to be able to serve community in this way.

Sure.

I know you touched upon eay in the pandemic one of the first cases up there in the Poconos.

So what was it like ring tt time?

Monroe County was a hotspo, one of the first hot spotsn the state.

What was it like, the stran the hospital, that kind of thing?

Was it like to go through t so the most significant imt for us was the number of patients that needed intene care unit sport, mostly ventilators and having a breathing tube put in thate were prepared.

We had contingency surge ps in place.

We did not need to implemet those surge plans, but the beauty of being part of a network is that even thouge were the first to care for Covid-19 patients, we workd with our network colleagueo put protocols in place, evidence based practice, mg sure that we had enough personal protective equipm, medications, ventilators, pplies.

So it really was the strenh of the network and working together to care for our community.

Sure.

And along those same linesn you bring us up to speed on what it's like now?

Numbers have been declinin.

Hospitalizations have been going down, althouh we d just hear that they have kd of leveled off and they're pretty steady right now.

What's it like there now?

So we definitely saw a secd wave November through Janu, February.

Our numbers started platea, but we still are seeing at least a handful a little bt more than two handfuls of patients on any given day.

So not where we were in the summer where we actually hd periods of time where we ho patients.

We were caring for that.

We're Covid positive, but definitely a plateau from e second wave.

Sure, sure.

So where do you stand toda?

Are we seeing an uptick in cases?

Are we seeing them just kif steady?

What are you seeing right ?

Definitely steady.

We're not seeing an uptickh and the good news that's different from the first we different from the first ws patients that require intee care unit.

So most of our patients are either on what's called a d search floor or a cardiac monitoring floor.

So definitely a lower levef care than what we saw the t wave.

Sure.

Of course, getting vaccinaa step in the direction to fighting a pandemic.

So I do want to go back tot vaccine clinic at Pocono Raceway.

What goes into putting something like that togeth?

I mean, just from the tent, the volunteers getting everybody organized, gettig the appointments seduled.

What goes into that Gamma o we've been planning for ths for about a month that reqs walking the facilities, wag the space so that we know e we need to set up not onlye tents but the staging areas well as thobservation area.

Edenvale is making sure the have all the supplies, the equipment.

We clearly identify peoples roles.

So for example, I wore a yw vest to the event because s interacting with the media.

And so ylow vest means pubc information officer.

So people have different colored vests and clearly e know what their roles are d when patients drove up to e tent, we had vaccinators on @both sides of people or a passenger or a driver.

We had register.

We had somebody asking questions.

You got vaccinated and theu drove to the observation a.

So clearly defined roles, y efficient and keeping peop, particularly people inform.

We had a lot of people directing traffic.

We had partners with the Rd Cross who volunteer, volunteered their time to p us out either a support stf or traffic control.

I even they gave me a bato.

I was very exciting for su.

Elizabeth, I wanted to ask that.

I mean, you see so many pee in that video.

Is it just and staff I knou said the Red Cross help to.

Is it just those two organizations or does the community pitch in and volunteer their time Gammao we get to meet volunteers m all different organizations Gamma But for this event is the local Monroe County Red Cross, Pokeno Red Cross, as well as volunteers across l of Lehigh that work, inclug our coordinated health pars that are part of LBA.

So the big question is, dou think you'll be able to pul something like this again?

And do you think that'll hn in the near future?

So this was first dose Mod.

So we will be offering secd dose in a drive through evt 28 days from now and tn hopefull as we continue wek over week to get additional vaccine supplies, we are ry and able to offer another s vaccination event.

Just today we announced two additional events at Dorney Park as well as Northampton Community College and we he to increase the amount from 3000 to even more than tha.

And our period of time.

Sure.

So is it just based on wher or not you can get the vacs Gamma That'll be the decidg factor Gamma Absolutely.

Is the state continues to provide additional vaccineo us.

We then can determine if wn do these events and then we open up the schedule for pe to sign up for an appointm.

Sure.

Now in your area right now, NPA, what do you see in tes of people who are startingo get comfortable starting to gather together?

The weather's getting nice.

We're all getting antsy.

Do you think people are leg their guard down a little t at this point?

You know, I have seen throh this whole period of time Monroe County residents cog the community.

And I continue to urge peo, when your time comes, pleae get vaccinated.

But in the meantime, we neo continue to be safe.

And I urge people to contie to do that in our communitd do that because we were abo flatten and even have peris of time where we had no cas that we were caring for ine hospital.

Elizabeth, I wanted to ask about your time as a nurse.

That's how you started your career in health care, reay kind of seeing it first-ha.

And nurses really have beee true heroes throughout this pandemic.

So how did you use your experience as a nurse?

And apply it during the pat year to help your staff and give them the tools they n?

So I'd like to think that l of our frontline workers we heroes.

We have a sign outside that says this is for the heroeo work here.

That includes a lot of different types of provide.

But you know, I always tell people that we'll never maa mistake and we make a decin unless we put the patient t the center of everything w. And I truly believe that ad that those were some of the words of wisdom that we are here for our community.

We are the leaders in carig for our pients and this was our time to show the commuy that we were able to provie safe care for them and to t their needs.

And moving on in this pand, how do you think that whats happened over the past, the course of the past 12 mont, how do you thinkhat's going change health care and how we treat patients and just health care in general?

So there's a couple of this that keep me up at night.

One of them has to do withe emotional toll of this pandemic.

I do worry that down the le we will see people that mat have copingkills.

We may see a surge in behavioral health issues.

I am concerned about the emotional impact on our community.

And then the other thing tt is a less uncertain to me s what will be the long term health care issues associad wi those who had Covid, whether it be breathing problems or other types of issues that we don't even w about yet that we have to prepare for in the future.

Elizabeth, I wanted to ask abt just treating people in general.

What's been the most diffit during this.

So, you know, I've gotten emails from our staff and y verbally told me that one f the most challenging but ao the most rewarding time for them was to hold a patients hand when they were dying,n a family member couldn't be there and that has been a challenge for people and is taken its toll on our caregivers.

But that's why we wanted a health care right, was to really be there for peoplen they were at their best.

Sure.

And you are so close to New York, just a hop, skip and jump.

How did that impact who you were serving at the hospitl and transmission in your nk of the woods?

So about 17,000 of the residents here in Monroe Cy leave here every day and gn a bus to go to work in Newk and New Jersey.

So that and when they come back, they use our services mostly our emergency room r our express cares.

So we were monitoring the situation very closely and working with our local government officials to say what can we do that would transmission worked obviouy with our local bus companyo take a lk at that.

And really it was a true partnership of all of us cg together to say what can wo to flatten the curve?

And that's what we did.

Elizabeth Wise from Lehigh Valley Hospital.

Pokeno, thank you so much r joining us with all of that great information today.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely.

And we continue this commuy update on coronavirus PB's.

You can hear the rebroadcan the radio tonight at nine n 91 3W Elvir.

Now let's bring in our next guest.

We first met Vince Hartsell about two months ago when Pennsylvania's vaccine rolt had reached smaller indepet pharmacies like his since , Herzl's in Quetta.

Sakwa has administered almt 4000 doses of vaccine.

But that supply from the se has now stopped.

Vince, thanks again s muchr joining us today.

Thank you for having me.

Let's start with this.

Why are you no longer gettg vaccine shipments from the state?

Big question.

That is a big question.

I think what's happening ie states are trying to get as ny goes into arm as in possible and they're leverg buyers out there that can e buyers out there that can t such as LDH and in St Louio have done a phenomenal jobn our area providng Martha Raddatz clinics.

My concern with SO is thers a group of the patient population that I don't thk mass vaccination clinics ae the best way to go.

Individuals that suffer frm disabilities, whether ment, physical or developmental, physical or developmental,n clinic might not be somethg that they can easily do.

Patients with mobility iss, how are they going to get e in a obviously a rival clic makes that a little simple.

Transportation issues.

What we were doing iwe were going out to group homes, g term care facilities that e still not completed by the state and going into low ie housing in Bethlehem.

And we're working to do son our own backyard here, too.

But without that scene, I t do that.

The vaccinations for those patients any more.

So and we hear almost every that we have community upde on coronavirus people who e saying they can't get out e and get those vaccines.

So from what I understand n some cases you've been takg the vaccines to those peop.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

There's a lot of patients t have transportation issues.

In fact, we have seven cancelation in our pharmacy today.

And my wife and I took up o carry two hours to vaccinae seven of the residents bece I wasn't going to go down d call a call lt going I'm nt going to get more vaccinesr the foreseeable future.

My thought process, her tht process was let's go up toe towers where they don't hae cars, they don't have transportation and vaccinae them where they live becaue it's cases.

If we don't do that, those vulnerable patients are gog to fall throughhe cracks because they're not going e to get out to a mass vaccination.

Like we said, almost 4000 people you've already vaccinated.

What did you hear from thoe people?

What were they thankful tht they could just go to their pharmacy and get this Covi9 vaccine?

I can imagine not only the convenience but close to h, maybe not that hard to get.

What were you hearing from folks Gamma People would bg us flowers.

They were just elated thaty could come so close to hom, walk into the pharmacy, sit down, fill out a screeningm five minutes later, ten mis later, have their vaccine n to them.

Wait 15min and then be on r way and not have to drive o another part of the county, another part of the area, caregivers for those with disabilitiesoved it.

They knethat some of their family members or for somef the organizations that we l with that can't bring to as clinic because the patients have behavioral issues that would go out to the car ano it.

We would have them come ine store, whatever works bestr them.

They were just simply elatd that they had a place to go that made things so simpled so easy for them so close o home then.

So when did you hear that u were no longer getting an allotment of vaccines and o you have people who've gotn first doses who won't get second doses of problems?

Has I called so far Gamma e were informed Thursday froe Department of Health and wt we were told was that we we not allowed to get any more first doses so we can stilo second doses of patients tt we started.

We can still order a second do vaccine and we will finh up.

The other thing I just wano make sure your listeners ae aware of if someone has an appointment with us, we doe some first dose left.

So if they have a scheduled appointment, we can still e them their vaccine as well.

The odd thing was about for weeks Department of Health ramped up a number of provs and now on Thursday they ct down again to somewhere ard 250 providers.

So their logic doesn't seeo make sense.

We need more providers andn two, three, four weeks latr they decide we need less providers.

That's kind of been somethg I've noticed with them.

I keep changing the rules.

What needs to happen, who y wanted to do things and speaking to other providert there, it kind of makes ths diffict for providers when diffict for providers whene Department of Health once Vincey mentioned people whe already scheduled for their vaccine can still come in d get one.

Do you have a lot of peopln your waiting list and are e people who you might have o turn away Gamma Our waiting list is about 8000 people t now.

We've got a lot of phone cs and a lot of emails askings where to go.

What we've done is you coud stay on our waiting list.

It might be a couple of wes till we get in with our fit dose vaccine again.

But if you're needing first dose, I also remmend goingo other providers and gettinn their list as well.

Look at LBA Chan and St Lu, the bathroom in downtown hh department.

I think we're kind of forte in the Lehigh Valley to hae those providers as well asy pharmacy team be able to mt the needs of the Lehigh Vay as best we can.

Have you talked to owners f other small pharmacies whos has happened to as well?

What kind of number are we looking at here?

How many pharmacies is this impacting Gamma I know of t least three of them in the Lehigh Valley across the s. There's been quite a bit tt have been cut out and I thk the ones that are still in there are in remote areas e there's not as much accesso care or there is not as may vaccine providers in that .

So there are some pharmacis that are sti in it and I kw we've contacted Senator Bastable and Representative McNeil.

They've gone to the plate r us to the Department of He.

So we're still kind of figg out how long that's going o be.

But we can't order first d. But it cld be a couple wees or it could be a couple of months.

Hopefully it's the shorterf the chip.

So I was just going to says there any recourse or appes process that you're going through because of this Gaa The only thing that we dids we went out to Senator Baseballer and Representate Baseballer and Representate department to kind of go fr that for us.

But I think the one thing t my wife and I were most shd with or kind of the thing t made us kind of happy about this entire situation was e emaithat everyone on our wt list and told them what happened and the amount of people that said we're goio call our representative abt this or we're going to cale Department of Health on yor behalf because you guys wee doing a great job.

You've done almost 4000 vaccines in eight weeks.

That's phenomenal for a sml town pharmacy that was reay appreciate it, guys.

Is feel good at the same t, if that's situation.

I mentioned the smaller pharmacies, the family ownd pharmacies.

But what about those big cs likeity to Walgreens?

Are you seeing this at thoe places as well?

Are they no longer getting vaccines or are there biggr chain?

They can maybe serve a coue more people Gamma Are they still getting vaccines?

And also, what does this tl about supply and demand?

So that is actually an awee question.

So it depends on where our vaccine is coming from a l. The source is if the source vaccine is from the federal vaccine and there are fedel vaccine provider, they proy still are getting vaccines.

Rite Aid, for example, is a federal vaccine provider, Weisse, the federal vaccine provider.

However, for organizationst are not federal vaccine providers, they would not e getting.

So I know for a giant in se cases would cut out and not they're not going to be geg vaccine, is there are those coming from the Departmentf alth Gamma So it all depens on the source and where the vaccine is coming from.

Where a federal vaccine provider, however, we haveo be activated.

So hopefully fingers crosse might be getting some fedel vaccine quicker than we'llt it back from the state.

But I got wait and see on t tour.

Hopefully that happens fore people that you serve now.

You belong to the pharmacit Care Network.

Are they doing anything collectively to try to remy this problem as well?

They are actually.

That's how we are a part oe federal vaccin source.

They've aually gone to the federal government and we'e hearing Wednesday or Thursy hopefully or later this we.

It will be approved for any federal vaccine then it's o this point.

I know that this is kind oa roadblock or a hurdle to gt over.

But up unl this point I mean, we talk to you two ms ago it was going pretty we.

Has it gone pretty well upo this point?

Yeah.

I mean, I'm super proud ofy team.

I think we've done a phenol job.

Our slowest we delivered 40 vaccines in our busiest we.

We've done ove 700, which s just last week.

We've gone to communities,w income housing complexes tt needed vaccine.

We've worked with partnerst we have in the area.

It's kind of identify those patits that would slip through the cracks and wout be able to navigate this process.

All in all, I mean, it's ba challenge.

There have been hurdles, bI think we've overcome it vey well and we've been, you k, not vaccinating 3000 peopla day, but we've been doing t we do best, which is helpig children as you continue ty to get more vaccines, is te any questions you have for governor or say, the Pennsylvania Department of Health at this point?

To try to get those vaccins Gamma It would just be nico know that I'm in no reasony we actually got cut off whe were one of the first pharmacies out there provig it.

And I know they say there's supply issues, but if you k at what the federal government's doing, the st, it doesn't match up to whae state sending out.

There seems to be a lot of logistical issues at the se level, which is kind of hampering the process.

But yeah, this is a large e event.

I don't over criticize the Department of Health becaue they have a very difficult.

However, if they can get ay vaccine, even if it's 100 s a week, I'll make sure thet the most vulnerable patiens out there.

Sure.

In many instances just beea frustrating situation for y people.

My final question for you today, Vince, is how do you think this pandemic overald then vaccine rollout, whato you think it tells us abour health care system, whethet be good or bad?

What we need to work on, wt does it tell us Gamma They definitely has shown a lign areas where as a health cae system, as a health care entity, we need to focus ad ki of our findings a little bit.

I think the one area wheret kind of shows that we needo work on is those patients t have trouble navigating one resources or have lower les of literacy.

Those that have that are socially impoverished or lw income housing.

I think those patient populations are very easily forgotten.

And I think that's one rean why I'm so concerned about trying to get vaccine becaI want to go back into those places and make sure invens just one final thought.

What do you want customerso know who maybe are lookingr a vaccine Gamma I think thg thing that they can do rigt now is just get on as many lists as possible.

The other thing is one, tw, don't be picky about which vaccine becomes available because there's no guarante that a certain vaccine or a certain Amy Robach is goino hit your area.

Vaccine comes up and you gn appointment unless there'sa true medical reason why you can't get that vaccine.

Make it all right then.

Hartzell from Herzl's Phar, thank you so much for joing us today.

I want to thank both of our guests for being with us.

And we want to thank you fr joining us for our communiy update on coronavirus wille here at 4:00pm each Monday, Wednesday and Friday on PB.

39 and on the radio nine 30 those same nights on WHO Lv Parnas will be back Wednesy at four to discuss more abt vaccines and the battle agt Covid-19.

If you have a question, yon leave it on our website.

PB's 39 dog on social medir you can give us a call and leave it there.

The phone numbers 44 eighto one zero zero zero eight f. PB's 39 in W Elvire Lev Pa.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.