COVID-19 vaccinations for EMS providers are underway in York County.
Steve Benotti of the York County Incident Management Team says that more than a third of the estimated 450 EMS providers have received a first dose.
“We hope — and I say it’s a hope — that if the supply stays consistent for us, we can have all of our EMS people in the county vaccinated within probably two weeks from today,” he says. “The sooner we get our people done, the sooner we can get other people done, like the remaining firefighters, police officers.”
Benotti says providing the vaccine has been logistically challenging, and has involved finding locations for clinics and identifying the correct number of first responders, who often work for multiple agencies.
Benotti says he’s not sure what kind of involvement EMT providers will have in administering vaccinations to the general public in the future. It’s important to get the vaccine out as quickly as possible, he says, but the effort will require funding.
