As COVID-19 cases increase in response to cooling weather and other factors, State Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine spoke with media Nov. 5 to outline advances in the search for a vaccine and plans for its distribution and administration.

In short: It’s too early for exact answers.

But there is plenty of good news in the vague answers.

Federal government funding is going to six competing clinical trials, and though details are still hazy, a basic framework is taking form as to how a successful vaccine will be implemented. This will take the form of three phases, the timing of which cannot yet be guessed, with medical workers, other frontline workers and the most vulnerable being priority. The second and third phases each broaden the distribution to larger groups.

Nothing can happen for certain however, until the Federal Drug Administration authorizes their use, at which point the best of many contingency plans can be implemented. Even then, she warns, recovering will take time. “It’s important to remember that when the vaccines are available, they’re not going to be a magical cure for coronavirus and will not immediately end the pandemic.”

She said a vaccine will likely work similar ly to a normal flu vaccine, making some recipients immune to the virus while lessening the symptoms for others.

Levine also said the vaccine will not be mandatory, but it will be important to convince the “vaccine hesitant” of its efficacy, because returning to normality with COVID-19 safely in the rearview will require many millions of people to be successfully vaccinated.

Of the six trials, only Johnson & Johnson’s will consist of a single shot; all the others will require a booster, while on Monday The Washington Post reported Pfizer’s vaccine was more than 90 percent effective in first analysis.

As of yesterday, the state has 221,473 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 9,024 deaths. Lehigh County has 7,525 confirmed and 372 deaths; Northampton County has more than 6,131 confirmed and 319 deaths; the city of Bethlehem has more than 1,240 cases and 82 deaths.