The Department of Health says it is planning a new mass vaccination clinic.
Kimberly Paynter / WHY
The city cut off the vaccine supply to Philly Fighting COVID after the group switched to a for-profit model and abandoned community testing partners, as reported by WHYY and Billy Penn last week. People who received their first doses of PFC will be transferred to a new provider, said the city’s health department.
Health officials are asking people to register again on the city-created website, which was announced on January 19 and launched two days later, a few weeks after the PFCs’ application went live.
For people who pre-registered with the PFC, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health “strongly recommends[s]”Entering your information again on the city website:
https://www.phila.gov/vaccineinterest
“By registering through this website, the Department of Health will be able to contact you to make an appointment when you are eligible and the vaccine is available,” said a statement provided by department spokesman James Garrow.
A department release on January 8 encouraged people to sign up for Philly Fighting COVID.
“Everyone else in Philadelphia is being encouraged to start the vaccine registration process by pre-committing to a vaccine at www.PhillyFightingCovid.com,” said the city statement.
“The pre-engagement form requires citizens of Philadelphia interested in a vaccine to provide personal information, including name, contact information, occupation and where they live and work, and sign up for updates on the status of vaccine administration. throughout the city and when it is their turn to be vaccinated. “
If you are one of the people who have already received the first dose through the PFC, know that the Department of Health has your information and says that it is planning to put another clinic in operation.
“We are working to set up another clinic, from the Health Department or another partner, which will be held on the day that they will be entitled to the second dose,” said the city. “As soon as we find out about this, we’ll get in touch and work with them to set up an appointment. We already have second doses reserved for these clinics. “
The city confirmed to WHYY that it had received at least seven requests for community vaccination proposals, including from major health systems Penn Medicine, Einstein and Temple Health.
If selected, Temple plans to establish a network of mobile vans offering community vaccines, Penn will partner with a federally qualified health clinic and Einstein will create a space near the Olney Transportation Center, where it has offered testing. This group expects to be ready and running by March 1st.
The city’s decision to stop working with the PFC depended on the group’s updated privacy policy, said Garrow, who “could allow the organization to sell the data collected through the PFC’s pre-registration website” – although the city said it did not have evidence that the data was sold.
“[F]or whether the PFC made these changes without discussion with the city is extremely worrying, ”he said.
The pre-registration site became a source of turmoil last week after WHYY and Billy Penn reported that the city and the start-up were not working together on the initial registration page, as they initially announced they would. Days later, the city launched its own COVID registration site. The Department of Health indicated that it would work to consolidate information from all existing registrations, including those administered by the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium and Acme Markets.