County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper held the weekly COVID-19 update while providing some clarification on how the state distributes vaccines.

Here is more on how many vaccines Erie County has allocated recently.

Last week Erie County received roughly 900 COVID vaccines to a variety of approved vaccine providers.

Erie County Department of Health officials explained how the COVID-19 vaccine ordering and approval process works for the commonwealth from the local level to the state level.

In Erie County, there are approximately 18 approved vaccine providers.

Each week these providers submit an order for vaccines using an electronic system.

Erie County Department of Health Official Melissa Lyon said that of the 18 approved vaccine providers, only nine of them received vaccines.

“These orders are collected by a specific deadline each week, and they are compiled for the entire state of Pennsylvania by a vaccine team from the Pennsylvania Department of Health so they know what the expected demand is for the entire state. These requests are then compared to the amount the federal government has allocated for Pennsylvania for that week,” said Melissa Lyon, Public Health Director for Erie County Department of Health.

Lyon added that unfortunately the number of vaccine orders are exceeding the supply of vaccines allocated to the State Health Department.