Campus Life

All Pennsylvania adults eligible for COVID-19 vaccine starting April 13

Students, employees encouraged to get vaccinated as soon as an appointment is available

Beginning April 13, all Pennsylvania adults will be eligible to schedule an appointment for a COVID -19 vaccine. Credit: Penn State Health / Penn StateCreative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Gov. Tom Wolf and the commonwealth’s COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force announced today that, as of tomorrow (April 13), all Pennsylvania adults will be eligible to schedule an appointment for a COVID -19 vaccine and Penn State is strongly encouraging all students, faculty and staff to sign up to get a vaccine as soon as an appointment is available.

There are currently three vaccines that have been deemed safe and effective against the coronavirus by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and granted emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration: two-dose vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna and a one-dose version from Johnson & Johnson.

“We really want everyone in our community to sign up to get the first vaccine available to them as soon as a dose is available,” said Kelly Wolgast, director of the University’s COVID-19 Operations Control Center. “In some areas it may still be a few weeks before an appointment is available, but the fact that all Pennsylvania adults will be eligible to make an appointment is great news for the commonwealth in the fight against COVID-19.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Health website features a map of vaccine providers, which includes hospitals, urgent care centers, doctor’s offices and pharmacies.

The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and Department of Health have opened a Regional Vaccination Clinic inside the Bryce Jordan Center at University Park. Appointments are required and can be made online or by calling 1-844-545-3450. Several pharmacies, Mount Nittany Medical Center and Centre Volunteers in Medicine also are administering vaccines in the Centre Region.

The commonwealth is not currently making vaccines available to employers to distribute to their employees or for universities to distribute to their students. While Penn State is supporting the commonwealth's Regional Vaccination Clinic at the Bryce Jordan Center, the University has not been named a distribution site for COVID-19 vaccines.

Should the state’s strategy change and vaccines become available for Penn State’s pharmacy or for a large-scale vaccination program, Penn State is prepared. The University has procured freezers capable of storing the vaccines at the appropriate temperatures and have identified facilities where vaccine doses could be delivered to the community. 

For more information on current vaccine eligibility and distribution, visit Pennsylvania’s vaccine website. The latest vaccination information for University community members is available on Penn State’s virus information website.

Last Updated April 16, 2021