Correction | Philadelphia has vaccinated more people than Montgomery County (but how the data is reported is the real culprit)

Yesterday, MoreThanTheCurve.com reported that more people had received the second dose of the vaccine in Montgomery County than had received the first dose in Philadelphia. This turns out to be wrong, but it is really an issue on how the numbers are being reported by the state.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health is only reporting vaccine data on the 66 counties that have received vaccine doses from the allotment from the state. Philadelphia is vaccinating people using its own allotment. The state’s data chart doesn’t explain this and it shows a number for vaccinations for Philadelphia.

Why does it show a number of vaccinations for Philadelphia? In response to an inquiry from MoreThanTheCurve.com, a representative of the Pennsylvania Department of Health explained that the number shown for Philadelphia on its data chart represents Philadelphia residents who were vaccinated in other counties from the state’s allotment.

So what are the real numbers? It is hard to know. Since the state is only counting those who receive the vaccine from its allotment, the nurse who is a resident from Montgomery County who got vaccinated at work in Philadelphia isn’t counted towards Montgomery County in the state’s data. The publicly available Philadelphia data doesn’t break down those who got the vaccine by county of residence.


Here are the numbers vaccinated as best as we can report them (as of 2/10/21):

Philadephia reports that from its allotment of vaccine, 129,121 have received the first dose and 54,858 of that number have received the second dose.

The Pennsylvania Depart of Health reports that from its allotment of vaccine, 14,602 Philadelphia residents have received the first dose in another county and 7.602 of this number have received the second dose.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reports that from its allotment of vaccine, 61,689 residents of Montgomery County have received the first dose and 17,383 of that number have received the second dose.