The state Department of Health is working with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and local officials in various counties to determine where it makes sense to set up mass vaccination clinics, when there’s enough vaccine available to sustain them, according to special adviser Lindsey Mauldin in a virtual news conference Friday.

Blair is one of the counties planning for such a community clinic at the Blair County Convention Center.

“I think we’re in line for that,” said Blair County Emergency Management Director Mark Taylor, when told of what Mauldin said. His office has had several calls with officials at PEMA and the DoH, and has submitted a plan for a clinic, he said.

The county has had a coronavirus task force for a while, but this week put together a task force dedicated to vaccinations, which will hold its first meeting March 11, Taylor said.

The county’s community clinic plan, still being finalized, includes rosters of workers and prescribes how parking, traffic flow and security would be handled, Taylor said.

“Logistical things,” he said.

The roster calls for ambulance workers, nurses, retired physicians, volunteers, Convention Center staff, police and the Sheriff’s Department to participate.

“It (would be) a big operation,” Taylor said. “I’m very certain we can do this without too much of a problem.”

“Sooner or later,” there will be more vaccine available than the programs operated by local hospitals and pharmacies can handle, making the time ripe for a community clinic, Taylor said.

The plan proposes a five-day event that would vaccinate 2,000 people per day for a total of 10,000 people, he said.

There would be a registration system for setting up appointments, rather than first-come, first-served, because that would generate crowding, which would be unacceptable, Taylor said.

It’s possible that if and when the local clinic occurs, the state might still be in Phase 1a — 4.5 million strong — comprising health care workers, long-term care facility residents and workers, plus everyone 65 and older, and people 16 to 64 with qualifying health conditions, according to Taylor.

Or by then, the state could be working on Phase 1b, comprising people in congregate settings not included in 1a, first responders, corrections officers, food and agricultural workers, postal workers, workers in grocery stores and factories, teachers, clergy, public transit workers and workers in child care and adult day care.

Mauldin declined to speculate when it will become practical to set up mass vaccination clinics. She doesn’t want to “overpromise,” she said. She also hedged about predicting when the state would be able to begin vaccinating people in 1b.

“We have to be realistic,” Mauldin said, noting that the state has been dealing with vaccine weather delays and “allocation issues.”

Nationwide, demand for vaccinations has thoroughly outstripped supply from the beginning.

Still, the number of doses supplied to Pennsylvania by the federal government has been increasing.

The increase was about 80,000 this week — 40,000 more first doses and 40,000 more second doses, officials have said.

There is still no timetable for lifting protective restrictions, although the department is continually reviewing them in the context of the increasing number of people vaccinated, Mauldin said.

About 2.2 million doses have been administered in the state so far, although only 649,000 people have received the requisite two shots, according to a department news release.

There are 12.8 million people in Pennsylvania.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.