Age breakdown: Here’s who’s getting COVID-19 vaccine
More than half of Lehigh and Northampton County residents who received both their COVID19 shots are senior citizens, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
In Pennsylvania, people eligible for a vaccine under phase 1A include health care workers, people in long-term care facilities, those 65 years and older, and anyone 16 and older with high-risk conditions. The state has released data showing the age breakdown of who has gotten the vaccine in each county ranging in ages from 16 to older than 105.
Seniors citizens, individuals 65 and older, made up the majority of people who were fully vaccinated across the state, at 54%. Lehigh County was close to the state number, with 54.5% of fully vaccinated individuals being seniors.
Northampton was somewhat higher than Lehigh and the state, with people 65 and older accounting for 57% of fully vaccinated.
According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, individuals 65 and older represent 17% of Lehigh County residents and 19.5% of Northampton County’s population.
Vicky Kistler, director of the Allentown Health Bureau, said they see people of varying ages at the clinics, but a good number of them are seniors. However, she added that because many seniors live in nursing homes or long term care facilities, they may not have come to the health bureau for their shots.
Adults younger than 40 made up a smaller but sizable chunk of those vaccinated in Lehigh and Northampton counties. Adults 20 to 39 years old accounted for 17.7% of fully vaccinated individuals in Lehigh and 14.8% in Northampton.
“We’ve seen a real mixed group — health care workers tend to be younger and we have vaccinated young people who have preexisting conditions,” Kistler said.
Kistler added because teachers and school personnel became eligible for vaccines recently, the bureau has started to see more young people.
Teenagers were one of the smallest groups of individuals who have been vaccinated in the Lehigh Valley. In both counties, those 16-19 years old made up less than 1% of partially and fully vaccinated.
The number of teenagers vaccinated also is lower because both the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are for emergency use only in people 18 years and older. Pfizer is the only vaccine approved for use on people as young as 16.
Pfizer’s vaccine may be approved for some younger teens and children in the near future. New clinical trials from Pfizer showed that the vaccine has 100% efficacy in children 12-15 years old, the drug company announced Wednesday.