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COVID Vaccines In Pennsylvania: Commonwealth Launches 'Your Turn' Portal To Help Eligible Residents Find Appointments

HARRISBURG (CBS) -- Pennsylvania is aiming to step up its game in getting qualified people their COVID-19 vaccine appointments. As Pennsylvania lags behind other states in administering the vaccine, it's changing how its vaccination program is run.

"We all know that here in Pennsylvania we need to do better, and we are doing better. We're working on that very hard," Gov. Tom Wolf said.

Currently, people over the age of 65 as well as frontline health care workers and people living and working in nursing homes can get vaccinated. That's about four million people, but only 1.5 million doses have been given. To help with the logjam, the Pennsylvania Department of Health is launching a "Your Turn" portal on the commonwealth's website.

"We know folks need help getting appointments. They need help with transportation, they need help when it comes to answering questions and they need help when it comes to reassurance," Wolf said.

"We recognize the frustration and anxiety older adults are experiencing as they await open appointments for vaccines or attempt to locate one," Secretary of Aging Robert Torres said

While the governor says there's little that he can do to get more than the 150,000 doses a week the commonwealth is currently allotted, he says the new portal will improve the process.

"This is an important way for the commonwealth to improve communication with residents about the availability of the vaccine and which distribution phase each Pennsylvanian falls into," Wolf said.

The portal is currently active on the commonwealth's website. Click here for more information.

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