Philadelphia residents who want to get the COVID-19 vaccine can now use the city’s official vaccine sign-up website to show their interest in booking appointments to receive their photos.
The website – published in English and Spanish – allows city residents to enter contact information and some personal background to help the city’s health department determine when users are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine. This will be based on landings and updated priority guidelines set by the Philadelphia vaccine task force.
Those filling out the interest form on the site will later be contacted by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health or one of the city’s vaccine partners when it comes their turn to schedule appointments.
Health department officials assured that the site is secure and that the personal information collected through the form is protected with the same level of security as other health information managed by the department.
“Having a COVID vaccine is a big step forward, but we understand that many Philadelphia residents are frustrated because they don’t know how to get vaccinated,” said Dr. Thomas Farley, Philadelphia Health Commissioner. “While we cannot get more vaccine doses released, with this notification we can at least assure interested Philadelphians that they will be contacted when they have the opportunity to get vaccinated.”
The supply of COVID-19 vaccines in the city remains extremely limited at the moment. On the city’s website, residents cannot make an appointment, but ask to be contacted when they can schedule one.
It can take weeks or months for people signing up for the COVID-19 vaccine to be called to make appointments.
The health department also works with other organizations that have set up “pre-registration sites,” including Philly Fighting COVID, the Black Doctor’s COVID-19 Consortium, and Acme. The city wants to ensure that the information that these groups have already collected is added to the city’s database.
There was some confusion among residents as to whether existing vaccine partner sites, such as Philly Fighting COVID, would transfer updated information to the city’s official site.
“While our database is being built, this one is being done for easy combination with the others,” said a health department spokesperson. “While it is possible in the future that some people who have signed up with these forms will be contacted after they have already received their vaccine, we don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing.”
The health department said it is developing tools that allow residents to register through any partner site – or all sites – so that they can be contacted when they become eligible for inoculation.
Philadelphia is in Phase 1B of its vaccination plan, which also covers certain groups of essential workers, seniors over the age of 75, and those with certain high-risk medical conditions, in addition to health workers already covered by Phase 1A.
“It is important to emphasize that at some point in the future, anyone who indicates they wish to receive a vaccine will be contacted and given the opportunity to make an appointment,” the health department said in a statement. “There is no reason to call your personal healthcare provider to ask if you can make an appointment.”
The city has been told it will continue to receive a total of about 20,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines per week until the end of February – plus appropriate second doses – which Farley described as a ‘very limited supply’. . “
It is hoped and expected that production of the COVID-19 vaccine will increase significantly in the coming weeks and months.