When: Pequea Valley school board meeting, April 15.
What happened: The board approved moving forward with tentative plans for Union Community Care to erect a health care site at Pequea Valley Intermediate School.
Background: Earlier this year, Lancaster and Welsh Mountain health centers merged into a sole health care provider, known as Union Community Care. This nonprofit organization offers accessible and comprehensive oral, substance abuse, physical and mental health services to underserved communities across Lancaster and Lebanon counties.
Why itâs important: Although the district has access to dental and vision coverage, administrators recently met with Union Community Care representatives and discussed tentative plans to establish a school-based health care site that would provide medical and behavioral health services for students districtwide. These on-site health professionals, according to director of student services Kathy Koenig, would collaborate with school perso
The Pennsylvania Department of Health recently expanded COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to all Pennsylvanians ages 16 and older. This decision came at a time when health care providers across our community were anxiously waiting for the state to open up vaccine eligibility â we finally had vaccine, we were ready, but we didnât have enough eligible individuals.
To say the announcement produced a collective sigh of relief and excitement for providers is an understatement â but we also recognized that not everyone in our community was as ready as we were, and that we have a lot of outreach work ahead of us.
THE ISSUE
Gov. Tom Wolf and the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force announced Monday that effective today, all Pennsylvanians ages 16 and older are eligible to schedule an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccine. âWe need to maintain acceleration of the vaccine rollout, especially as case counts and hospitalization rates have increased,â Gov. Wolf said. State Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam said âthis change provides earlier access for many, including college students, increasing the likelihood of completion of two-dose regimens prior to leaving campus for the summer.â Wolf also announced Monday that the commonwealth now ranks 11th in the nation in terms of first doses administered; nearly 39% of Pennsylvanians have received at least one dose.
THE ISSUE
Gov. Tom Wolf reported Friday that Pennsylvania ranked 13th in the nation in first doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered; 32.4% of Pennsylvanians had received at least one dose; 1.92 million Pennsylvanians were fully vaccinated; more than 5.4 million vaccines had been administered; and more than 1.6 million seniors had received at least one dose.
In the battle to defeat COVID-19, we are making real progress via vaccination.
The nation had, by Thursday, âadministered 20 million shots in seven days,â President Joe Biden said Friday.
And Pennsylvania is climbing the state rankings for vaccines administered, which is both amazing and surprising, given the commonwealthâs slow and rocky start in the race to vaccinate.
Here are five takeaways:
â A Franklin & Marshall College survey found 90% of Lancaster County adults in every group polled â regardless of political affiliation, racial or income attainment â support forming a local health department. Jennifer Meyer, a government and public health professor and F&M researcher who presented the results of the public opinion poll called the support âuniversal and âhigh levels of demand for a public health department.
â Support for a public health department was not a reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic and having a local authority could provide data on pressing health issues such as child lead poisoning, which can damage the brain and nervous system, lower IQs. A 2017 Princeton University and Brown University study found increased blood lead levels raised the probability of incarceration by 27% to 74%.