St. Luke’s celebrates 100K COVID vaccinations, as snow derails shipments to Lehigh Valley
Updated Feb 19, 2021;
Posted Feb 19, 2021
Dr. Kara Mascitti, a St. Luke s University Health Network infectious disease physician and network medical director for healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention, announces Friday, Feb. 19, 2021, the 100,000th vaccination dose administered in the fight against COVID-19, during a news conference at the Anderson Campus hospital in Bethlehem Township, as U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, D-PA-07, looks on.Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com
Facebook Share
A steady stream of people eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine streamed through the doors of St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem Township on Friday, as a celebration was underway to mark a milestone.
Promising COVID treatment now available to residents at Gracedale, county officials say
Updated Feb 18, 2021;
Posted Feb 18, 2021
Virtua Health nurse Chioma Sullivan works in the monoclonal antibody infusion center Jan. 14, 2021, at Virtua Willingboro Hospital.Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com
Facebook Share
County Executive Lamont McClure and Gracedale Administrator Jennifer Stewart-King announced the new initiative Thursday.
Developed by Eli Lilly and Co., the treatment is called bamlanivimab and is being administered under an emergency use authorization issued last Nov. 9 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Gracedale staff will be working with St. Luke’s University Health Network and Advanced PICC Support to administer the treatment, according to a news release from the county.
State officials realized last weekend that an unknown number of second doses of Moderna vaccine were administered as first doses, turning an already tumultuous vaccine rollout even further on its head.
Barry Ciccocioppo, COVID-19 press secretary for the Department of Health, said Thursday that communication from the department needs to be clearer regarding which vaccines are first doses and which are second doses, and said that pharmacies that misadministered doses shouldn t bear all the blame. We re not saying necessarily that it was the pharmacies who made a mistake, Ciccocioppo said. We re not trying to place blame on anyone.
Ciccocioppo said that the problem became evident when there was a much higher amount of second doses being requested from providers than what would be allocated by the federal government. The misadministration of doses has been happening over the past few weeks, he said