Eligible people in Philadelphia’s Phase 1B could get the coronavirus vaccine at a mass clinic starting Feb. 22, the city announced Tuesday, warning those further back in line that the current phase could take weeks.
The city’s health department will run three first-dose and three second-dose clinics per week with the goal of vaccinating about 500 patients per day, health commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley to reporters.
The health department will contact people and ask them to make an appointment. It will list the eligible people in Phase 1B who have completed the vaccination application form at phila.gov/vaccineinterest. People without reliable Internet access or computer skills can apply through the city’s COVID Call Center at 215-685-5488.
To be eligible for the vaccine in Philly’s Phase 1B, as of February 2 people must fit into one of the following groups:
- Over 75 years old;
- With certain high-risk health conditions: cancer, chronic kidney disease or a recent organ transplant;
- Frontline workers such as prison staff, first responders and service providers who work with vulnerable people.
Farley was waiting for more details after President Joe Biden announced that the federal government will expand shipments of vaccine doses to pharmacies. It’s not clear how many more doses Philly will receive, but it would add to the city’s current allocation of 20,000 Pfizer and Moderna doses per week.
Those newly announced extra doses would go to Rite Aid and Shop Rite pharmacies. The city will contact eligible people – who have signed up on the vaccinations interest form – and direct them to those pharmacies’ appointment times when they become available.
Vaccinate Philly Fighting COVID Patients
The city is also laying loose ends after severing ties with a vaccine supplier whose practices raised questions. Acting Deputy Health Commissioner Dr. Caroline Johnson resigned this weekend after it was revealed that she had provided information on a proposal to some, but not all, applicants to administer vaccine doses, including Philly Fighting COVID.
The group, led by 22-year-old Drexel student Andrei Doroshin, switched to vaccinations after PPE production and running test sites. It gave shots to about 6,700 people at the Pennsylvania Convention Center before the city closed the scheme over patient data concerns and a shift to profit-making status.
Beginning Wednesday, February 3, the city’s health department will run second-dose clinics for patients who have received their first dose of Philly Fighting COVID.
Farley said clinics will take place every day this week until February 6. About 2,500 people will receive their second dose at this clinic this week.
More clinics are to be planned next week and it is expected that approximately 4,400 people will be vaccinated.
In a letter last week, Mayor Jim Kenney asked Farley to give doses that would have gone Philly Fighting COVID to the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium. The BDCC will receive 2,000 doses this week and 2,500 next week. It moved its clinic from a West Philadelphia church to Temple University’s Liacouras Center on Tuesday due to snow, Kenney said.