The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has expanded its definition of persons authorized to give the vaccine.  These include, among others, current and retired traditional and non-traditional health care professionals, and students in health care programs. Read more here.

The sweeping, nationwide plan to recover from the pandemic will invest more than $6 billion in underserved and rural areas through Community Health Centers (CHCs). More than 91 percent of health center patients are individuals or families living at or below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, and more than 60 percent are racial or ethnic minorities. Read more here.

HHS will invest more than $6 billion from the American Rescue Plan into Community Health Centers nationwide to expand COVID-19 vaccinations, testing, and treatment for vulnerable populations; deliver preventive and primary health care services to people at higher risk for COVID-19; and expand health centers’ operational capacity during the pandemic and beyond, including modifying and improving physical infrastructure and adding mobile units.  The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), will provide funding starting in April to nearly 1,400 centers across the country. Community Health Centers serve 1 in 5 people living in rural communities. More than 91% of health center patients are individuals or families living at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, and more than 60% are racial or ethnic minorities.

For detailed information on how this funding is being distributed to health centers nationwide, including state-by-state breakdowns and an interactive health center funding map, please visit: https://bphc.hrsa.gov/program-opportunities/american-rescue-plan/awards

Read the White House fact sheet.

COVID-19 Community Corps to Mobilize Doctors, Community Leaders, Businesses and Citizens and Equip Them with Resources and Information to Build Vaccine Confidence and Uptake

HHS Also Launches First TV Ads Encouraging Vaccinations, and Social Media Profile Frames for Americans to Share Support of Vaccines with the Message “We Can Do This”

On April 1, 2021, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced additional measures to encourage vaccinations and increase vaccine confidence as part of the next phase of its COVID-19 public education campaign. The Administration is launching the COVID-19 Community Corps – a nationwide, grassroots network of local voices people know and trust to encourage Americans to get vaccinated. As part of the launch of the Community Corps, Vice President Kamala Harris and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy met with founding members on Thursday, April 1, as she begins championing the next phase of the public education campaign from the White House.

The Community Corps will be comprised of trusted voices in communities across the country, and the Administration will regularly share updated public health information and resources for them to use with their communities to help get friends, family, and followers vaccinated.

Read the release.

Join the HHS COVID-19 Community Corps.

By Anya Slepyan

With budgets already stretched thin, rural community colleges face more challenges as the pandemic forces many current and prospective students to postpone or cancel their higher education plans.
Read more

By Tim Murphy and Tim Marema

The number of new cases in rural counties increased marginally last week, but new metropolitan cases climbed by 15%.
Read more

At 70, Linda Findley has long been active in her small town of Fort Scott, Kansas, which sits more than an hour away from any major city.

Findley, whose husband died in an accident just after the local hospital closed, helps with the Elks and fundraising, and — like many people in this part of the country — doesn’t think covid-19 is that dangerous.

“I don’t even know what I think about it,” Findley said recently. “I don’t know if I trust the testing because it’s so messed up or … I’ve had nieces and nephews, that’ve had it. I’ve lost good friends to it, or supposedly it’s to that.”

Findley said she just isn’t sure that every case reported as the coronavirus really is the virus: “Everything seems to be coronavirus. I mean, it’s just … no matter what somebody has, it’s coronavirus. I don’t know whether it is or isn’t.”

Fort Scott is one of nearly 140 rural communities that have lost a hospital in the past decade. Mercy Hospital Fort Scott closed in December 2018.

Even though critically ill patients now must travel to hospitals farther away, Fort Scott residents haven’t seen that as a pandemic-related problem. Rather, not having a hospital doesn’t really come up when people here talk about COVID.

Dave Martin, the former city manager, is pretty sure he caught COVID at work last August.

“You know, when I got it, I was in good health and it did take me a while to recover,” Martin said. “I do remember waking up one of my bad nights and thinking, when I was running a temperature and not feeling very well. And I’m thinking, ‘Oh, wow, this could kill me.’”

But Martin also thought that any number of unpredictable events could end a person’s life. “So it didn’t really stick with me,” he said.

After recovering, the 62-year-old Martin went ahead with his retirement. He took his wife to Disney World and then they hiked Yellowstone National Park.

That casual attitude toward the dangers of COVID worries health care leaders in Fort Scott. Jason Wesco helps lead the regional health center that took over primary care services when the hospital closed. One clinic occupies part of the same building that used to be Mercy Hospital.

Wesco said his family is careful about wearing masks and not gathering in groups, and he believes they are in the minority in the area.

“I think most people just keep going. They have maybe modified a little bit. Maybe they put on a mask in public,” Wesco said. “I think life here has changed a lot less than it’s changed in D.C. And I think we’re seeing the impact of that, right?”

The pandemic hit the area hard in the fall, peaking in late December.

One in 11 people in Bourbon County, where Fort Scott is the largest community, has been infected by COVID, according to national analysis.

Two dozen of the county’s 14,000 residents have died of COVID. And most people know someone who had the virus and survived — but residents just seem tired of talking about it.

Community volunteer Findley said she won’t get a vaccine.

“How did they come up with a vaccine that quickly? And how do they even know for sure it’s even working?” Findley wondered.

The three vaccines approved by federal regulators in the U.S. are being given out to millions, and their efficacy has been shown through massive clinical trials in the U.S. and globally.

But Findley’s skepticism is fairly common in southeastern Kansas and across rural America. Nationwide, a smaller share of rural residents say they will definitely get a COVID shot compared with their more urban counterparts. More than a third, 35%, of those who live outside big-city borders said they would probably not or definitely not get vaccinated, compared with about a quarter of suburban and urban residents, according to a poll by KFF. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll found that 47% of Trump supporters said they would not get a vaccine; 75% of Bourbon County residents voted for Trump in 2020.

Factors such as age and occupation also play a role in attitudes toward the vaccines. And — as Findley and others in Fort Scott noted — rural Americans are more likely to think of getting a vaccine as a personal choice and believe the seriousness of COVID is exaggerated in the news.

About 50% of rural residents say the seriousness of the coronavirus is generally exaggerated in the news, according to the KFF poll. And 62% see getting the vaccine as a personal choice — rather than a necessary social obligation.

Wesco, executive vice president of the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, said he has hope more area residents will begin to see the vaccines as necessary.

“There’s hesitancy,” Wesco said, adding that he believes hesitancy is declining as vaccines become more abundant.

When residents are directly provided the opportunity to get a vaccine, they consider it more seriously, he said. And the more people they know who have gotten a vaccine, the more likely they will be to get a shot.

The Community Health Center, like other health centers nationwide, is receiving direct federal shipments of vaccines. Currently, the clinic has a waitlist and is giving out as many doses as it can get its hands on.

Sarah Jane Tribble is reporter and host of “Where It Hurts,” a narrative podcast created by KHN and St. Louis Public Radio about the people of Fort Scott and how their health care transformed after the hospital closed. “Where It Hurts” is available wherever you get your podcasts.

Targeted Industry Workers Beginning Today; All Pennsylvanians by April 19

The Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) in conjunction with the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force announced on March 31, 2021 the start of the special initiative to vaccinate targeted industry workers and to accelerate the vaccination timetable for those in Phases 1B, 1C and 2. All Pennsylvanians will be eligible to schedule vaccination appointments beginning April 19.

“The vaccine landscape continues to evolve as the federal government is increasing allocations to more retail pharmacy chains across the country,” ​Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam said. “To ensure that vaccine continues to get to people efficiently and equitably, Pennsylvania is adapting its plan to allow workers in targeted industries to access any of the three vaccines available at providers throughout the state, and to accelerate our eligibility for remaining phases of the state’s vaccination plan.

“Pennsylvania’s vaccine providers have dramatically stepped up the pace of vaccinations to an average of 83,000 per day, moving the keystone state higher and higher in the rankings with other states. As we complete Phase 1A vaccinations, it’s time to open eligibility to more Pennsylvanians so providers can continue to fill appointments and efficiently, effectively and equitably vaccinate more people every day.”

Pennsylvania will begin the following accelerated phased rollout:

• March 31 workers in the four targeted industries that Gov. Wolf and the Task Force announced on March 12:
  • Law enforcement, which includes police, sheriffs and deputies, constables, corrections officers and staff, as well as probation and parole staff.
  • Firefighters, including career and volunteer firefighters.
  • Grocery Store workers, including all workers in supermarkets and grocery stores.
  • Food and Agriculture workers, including all food processing company employees, including meat, poultry, and dairy processing, fresh fruit and vegetable packing operations, food manufacturing, all farmworkers, farm operators, and farm managers, including at urban agriculture operations.

• April 5 all residents in Phase 1B will be eligible to start scheduling vaccination appointments.
• April 12 all residents in Phase 1C will be eligible to start scheduling vaccination appointments.
• April 19, all residents will be eligible to start scheduling vaccination appointments.

“It is important to remember that eligibility does not guarantee an immediate vaccination appointment,” Beam said. “Vaccine providers are ready and eager to get a shot in the arm of every person who wants one while we continue to aggressively advocate for more vaccine.”

COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force members discussed the benefits of the accelerated plan.

“President Biden has asked us to make every adult eligible for vaccination with the vaccine he is providing,” said Sen. Art Haywood. “We can do it, we can make the change.  We can get more vaccine to Southeast PA and across the commonwealth and target vaccine, so no one is left out.”

“Due to the successful implementation of the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force’s revised strategic plan, along with an increasing supply of vaccine doses from the federal government and the tremendous work of our provider network, Pennsylvania is now in a position to pursue an aggressive timeline to ensure any Pennsylvanians who wants to be vaccinated is eligible to do so by April 19,” said Sen. Ryan Aument. “As we expand eligibility, we must not forget about our seniors and our commitment to prioritize them and others in Phase 1A, as well as our frontline workers such as law enforcement and first responders in Phase 1B.”

“We can meet President Biden ‘s request with the amount of vaccines he is providing,” Rep. Bridget Malloy Kosierowski said. “Pennsylvania has done the work to make this a reality. I have said time and time again that this will get better, and it is. Our dedicated providers, who are on the ground every day, Governor Wolf’s administration, and our task force have collaboratively worked together in prioritizing the health and safety of all Pennsylvanians.”

“Today is a day of hope and optimism,” said Rep. Tim O’Neal. “Earlier this month, we announced plans to prioritize our essential workers and first responders by offering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to them in the coming weeks. We have now done that today. In addition, we have set a timeline so that anyone who wants the vaccine will get able to begin scheduling their appointment at the latest by April 19. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and brighter every day.”

Residents should continue to use the Department of Health’s Vaccine Provider Map to find a vaccine provider nearest them. The department will continue to update the map as the federal government increases the number of pharmacy chains receiving vaccine through the Federal Retail Pharmacy Partnership.

People without internet access can contact the Health Hotline by calling 1-877-PA-HEALTH (1-877-724-3258).

As COVID-19 cases have declined and vaccination rates are climbing, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced the lifting of some targeted restrictions on restaurants and other businesses, as well as increased gathering limits.

Effective April 4, restaurants may resume bar service; alcohol service will be allowed without the purchase of food; the curfew for removing alcoholic drinks from tables will be lifted; and indoor dining capacity will be raised to 75 percent for those restaurants that are currently self-certified and those that undergo the self-certification process, which involves agreeing to strictly comply to all public health safety guidelines and orders, including the cleaning and mitigation protocols and other operational requirements contained in the Governor and Secretary of Health’s mitigation and enforcement orders issued on November 23, 2020, as amended. Those restaurants that do not self-certify may raise capacity to 50 percent. Outdoor dining, curbside pick-up and takeout are still encouraged.

Requirements such as mask-wearing, and social distancing, including 6 feet between diners, also still apply.

Capacity for other businesses also will be increased effective April 4, including moving personal services facilities, gyms and entertainment facilities (casinos, theatres, malls) to 75 percent occupancy.

The governor also announced revised maximum occupancy limits for indoor events to allow for 25% of maximum occupancy, regardless of venue size, and maximum occupancy limits for outdoor events to allow for 50% of maximum occupancy, regardless of venue size. Maximum occupancy is permitted only if attendees and workers are able to comply with the 6-foot physical distancing requirement.

“Pennsylvanians have stepped up and done their part of help curb the spread of COVID-19,” Gov. Wolf said. “Our case counts continue to go down, hospitalizations are declining, and the percent positivity rate gets lower every week – all very positive signs. The number of people getting vaccinated increases daily and we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel. It’s time to allow our restaurants, bars and other service businesses to get back to more normal operations.”

While the lifting of these restrictions is good news, Gov. Wolf cautioned that mask-wearing, social distancing and business adherence to all safety orders are still imperative.

“We’ve come so far and now is not the time to stop the safety measures we have in place to protect ourselves, our families and our communities,” Gov. Wolf said. “Keep wearing a mask, social distancing, and, please, get vaccinated when it’s your turn.”

Find more on the restaurant self-certification process here.