Pa. to LVHN: No vaccine allocation next week

Pa. to LVHN: No vaccine allocation next week

By Brittany Sweeney

February 11, 2021

Lehigh Valley Health Network may not get the vaccine shipment it was counting on for next week. Network leaders are scrambling to find out where the doses are for scheduled shots.

Robert Murphy, LVHN’s executive vice president and chief physician executive, was furious Feb. 10 after the Pennsylvania Department of Health told his network it would not receive doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for next week.

“I’m not sure how the dose distribution is being levied out by the state. This news is literally hot off the presses and our leadership here at the network is trying to reach out to the governor, the health department and other advocates to try to wrap our arms around this and what we may message to the folks who are depending on us actually,” Murphy says. 

If the situation is not fixed thousands of vaccine appointments will have to be cancelled. Even worse, Murphy says, some will not receive their second dose as promised.

“The time in between notification, delivery and shots in arms is very very limited and unfortunately we received some very challenging news in that we likely would not get any new doses for next week which would be a very real blow to service our community,” he says. 

The Allentown Health Director says the city received 2,500 doses on Feb. 10 but doesn’t know about future allocations. The bureau doesn’t typically find out about allocations for the following week until later in the week. 

It was unclear if other providers in our region got similar news.

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