Despite being within 20 minutes walking distance to what was one of the busiest vaccination sites in Bucks County, residents living in the 19007 zip code, are the third lowest across the state, in total vaccination numbers, said County Commissioner Bob Harvie
Harvie made a special appearance at Monday nights Bristol Borough Council Meeting to talk about vaccinations and how the effort is transitioning but said his visit was really to focus on the vaccination issue within the Bristol zip code.
He said the report came from the State Health Department, and according to it 44 % of adults living within the 19007 zip have been vaccinated and that is one of the lowest numbers statewide.
Harvie said if you are waiting for more evidence about the risks and effectiveness of the three vaccines the count administers, all you have to do is look around you, he said, explaining that the vaccines are doing what they were made to do.
The evidence, if you are waiting to see if these are safe, you don’t have to look at the rest of the country. Literally hundreds of thousands of doses just in this county have been given out and we have not seen any of the major things here,” he offered.
Providers throughout Bucks County have administered a total of 589,666 doses of vaccine, enough to fully vaccinate 269,400 people and partially vaccinate 74,852, according to county data, with a test positivity rate, which exceeded 17 percent a few months ago, now down to 1.1 percent.
“We’ve given out mostly Pfizer, lots of Moderna, and thousands and thousands of Johnson and Johnson and we haven’t seen any of things, you know, the nightmare scenarios you hear about” here in Bucks County, Harvie said.
The county is now in a transitioning mode as far as providing vaccines, with the recent closing of the Bristol site at Bucks County Community College, for example with the officials now looking to hold pop-up vaccination events throughout the county for targeted areas of concern.
Credit: Rhiannon Cullaton
We want to make sure schools open in the fall, we want make sure Historic Bristol Day happens and getting vaccinated continues to moves us in that direction, the commissioner said.
“We need people to get vaccinated.”
Harvie, in a related issue also shed some light on an initiative he said many residents are unaware of. The homebound vaccination program the county is now offering, with help from first responder volunteers launched in May.
Over the last six weeks, we’ve vannicated hundreds of people who are homebound. These are people who called the county, we put them on a list and then sent out volunteers from the health department to administer shots, Harvie said.
To call and make an vaccine appointment if you are homebound or know someone who is 1-800 383 0371.
Lastly Harvie along with Borough officials, will be holding pop-up clinics in Bristol on a as yet date to be determined. Coordination between the borough and county officials on a scheduling will happen in the coming days, officials said, noting there will be vaccines available Saturday’s Juneteenth Festival for those who would like to be vaccinated.
For additional information on COVID-19 vaccinations and the pandemic you can visit the counties dashboard by clicking here.
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