HARRISBURG — The state Department of Health reports that the state is “continuing to get more vaccines each week” but hope to centralize their approach by providing more vaccines to less providers.

According to DOH Senior Advisor, Lindsey Mauldin, this centralized process will “allocate to a smaller network of providers to distribute more efficiently” but that these providers will be receiving more vaccines.

As of March 15, the state has administered a total of 3,735,484 vaccines — 92 percent of first doses and 63 percent of second doses have been administered.

“That means that nearly 2.5 million Pennsylvanians have received their first dose and more than 1.3 million have received both doses and are now fully vaccinated,” Mauldin said.

This week, the state received 278,670 first doses which is an over 25,000 increase in vaccination alongside receiving 242,276 second doses, a 16,000 increase over last week’s allocation.

With the order that was placed by Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam suggesting that by March 31 all phase 1A eligible Pennsylvanians should be scheduled for a vaccination appointment, there were many concerns with thousands of vulnerable Pennsylvanians who are struggling daily to schedule an appointment.

Mauldin described that the hope for the order is to have everyone scheduled by March 31, but that those appointments can go past March, the hope is to just have everyone who wants the vaccine, scheduled.

“There is still not enough vaccine for everyone who wants it at this time,” she added.

So far, the state has only received approximately 94,000 of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but expect to receive more of that at the end of the month. Discussions about what the state will do about the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine once all state teachers and childcare workers are vaccinated have yet to happen.

There still is no timeline for when the state will move into phase 1B, but Mauldin predicts it will move through phases 1B and 1C faster than 1A.