Qualified people in Philadelphia’s Phase 1B could receive the coronavirus vaccine at a mass clinic from February 22, the city announced on Tuesday, while warning those who were further back in line that the current phase could take weeks .
The city’s health department will run three first-dose clinics and three second-dose clinics each week with the aim of vaccinating about 500 patients a day, health commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley told reporters.
The health department will contact people and ask them to make an appointment. He will download his list of eligible people in Phase 1B who filled out 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 Phase 1B vaccine in Philadelphia, beginning February 2, people must fall into one of the following groups:
- Over 75 years;
- With certain high-risk health conditions: cancer, chronic kidney disease or a recent organ transplant;
- Essential frontline workers, such as prison officials, rescuers 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 vaccine doses to pharmacies. It is unclear how many more doses Philly will receive, but it would increase the city’s current quota of 20,000 doses of Pfizer and Moderna each week.
Those newly announced extra doses would go to the Rite Aid and Shop Rite pharmacies. The city will contact the eligible people – who have signed up for the vaccine interest form – and forward them to pharmacy hours as they become available.
Vaccination of patients with COVID who fight Philly
The city is also tying up loose ends after cutting ties with a vaccine supplier whose practices have raised questions. Acting deputy health commissioner Dr. Caroline Johnson resigned this weekend after it was revealed that she gave information about a proposal to some, but not all, candidates to administer doses of vaccine, including Philly Fighting COVID.
The group, led by Andrei Doroshin, a 22-year-old graduate student at Drexel, switched to vaccination after making PPE and running test sites. He administered injections to about 6,700 people at the Pennsylvania Convention Center before the city closed the deal because of concerns over patient data and a shift to for-profit status.
Starting on 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 the clinics will take place every day this week until February 6. About 2,500 people will receive their second doses at this clinic this week.
More clinics will be scheduled for next week, and the expectation of vaccinating about 4,400 people.
In a letter last week, Mayor Jim Kenney asked Farley to give doses that would have gone to Philly Fighting COVID for the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium. The BDCC is receiving 2,000 doses this week and will have 2,500 next week. He moved his clinic on Tuesday from a church in western Philadelphia to the Liacouras Center at Temple University because of the snow, Kenney said.