Philly could reach herd immunity by June as pace of vaccinations speeds up, health director says, but new case numbers are ‘going the wrong direction’

Philadelphia will open five new city-run vaccination clinics this month, officials announced Tuesday.

Next week, the city will open three clinics:

Those clinics will be open one day per week and will join the four existing city-run community clinics that have already opened. The city’s clinics make up a fraction of the 130 total locations now offering vaccination citywide, but officials have said they are located strategically in areas with vulnerable populations and to provide residents with shots in their own neighborhoods.

Farley said that the clinics are vaccinating about 400 people per day when they first open, but he hopes they can work up to 500 per day — the initial goal he set for those sites.

Two additional city-run clinics will open the week of March 22 in Northeast Philadelphia and East Mount Airy. A tenth city clinic will open later in West Philadelphia, officials said.

— Laura McCrystal

Philadelphia is working with pharmacies to improve racial equity in vaccinations, Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said Tuesday.

An Inquirer analysis of Philadelphia vaccine providers found that as of Feb. 21, Rite Aid’s vaccinations have gone overwhelmingly to white people. For every one dose that Rite Aid gave a Black person, it gave 21 doses to white recipients. The pharmacy is the city’s second-largest vaccine provider.

“I would prefer that they have a more diverse group that they’re vaccinating,” Farley said, speaking broadly about all pharmacies in the city. “In the wake of publicity, a number of them are going to try to work on this more.”

Farley said pharmacies have online registration systems that make it easiest for “people who are more internet savvy” to make appointments.

“The pharmacies are good at getting vaccine out quickly,” he said. “We have a lot of pharmacies that can deliver a lot of doses in a hurry. They’re less good at racial equity. So that is a problem.”

Farley said the city would work to connect pharmacies with community groups to offer off-site clinics outside their stores and reach a more diverse population.

“We don’t think that we can just say, ‘you don’t get any more vaccine at this point,’ because we do have to get vaccine out to all people,” Farley said.

» READ MORE: Rite Aid gave 21 Philly vaccine doses to white people for every one it gave a Black person

— Laura McCrystal

Mayor Jim Kenney praised Congress Tuesday for moving toward passage of a new stimulus package, and said it would jumpstart the city’s economic recovery.

“This new relief will indeed be a rescue for many Philadelphia families and businesses and it can’t have come soon enough,” he said.

The relief package will also include funding for state and local governments. Kenney said officials are still analyzing how much aid the city, which projects a $450 million budget hole for the upcoming fiscal year, will receive.

“We’re still going through that at the moment with our finance people” he said.

Kenney noted that the funding is a “one-shot infusion” that city will spread out over a number of years, and will not spend it all in the next budget.

» READ MORE: Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill nears the finish line in Congress

— Laura McCrystal

Philadelphia may have enough residents vaccinated by June to halt the spread of the coronavirus, Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said.

Farley said experts estimate that if about 70% or 80% of people have antibodies against the virus, its spread would “cycle down and go toward zero.”

He said he is hopeful that will happen by June — “but please don’t hold me to that,” he added.

“I think it’s great for people to be excited about a summer that’s going to feel a lot more like a normal summer,” he said, “but for now everybody needs to be wearing their masks.”

Farley said he hopes that vaccinations will start slowing the number of COVID-19 deaths in the city, because the most vulnerable residents are getting vaccinated first. And he said that while the city needs to get through the winter wave of the pandemic without relying on the vaccine, vaccinations should soon begin to make a difference in case counts.

“I think we’re close now to having enough (vaccinations) to change the trajectory of the number of cases we have,” he said.

» READ MORE: Are we at the beginning of the end of COVID-19? The tricky road to herd immunity, explained.

— Laura McCrystal

The rate of new cases of the coronavirus has increased in Philadelphia in the past two weeks, after several weeks of decreases, Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said Tuesday as he urged residents to continue wearing masks and social distancing.

Last week, Farley said, the city had an average of 260 new cases per day and test positivity rate of 4.4%. In the previous week, there were 258 cases per day on average, and a test positivity rate of 3.5%.

“It’s going in the wrong direction,” Farley said. “Not necessarily fast, but it’s going up.”

The city reported an additional 330 new confirmed cases Tuesday, as well as 12 new deaths. A total of 3,169 residents have now died of COVID-19.

Farley said vaccinations are progressing, but not quickly enough to stop the spread of the virus. He said people “shouldn’t let their guard down right now.”

— Laura McCrystal

Philadelphia officials have closed the loophole that allowed ineligible people to make appointments at the mass vaccination site in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said Tuesday.

“It should be fixed for tomorrow and beyond,” Farley said, noting that a version of emails inviting residents to make appointments will not allow them to forward a link to others.

But the software company sends out these more secure emails more slowly than the previous version, Farley said, so the city is also supplementing that with phone calls to high-risk people on the list to help them make appointments.

In its first five days, the vaccination site, run by the federal government, vaccinated 5,908 people per day, Farley said — almost reaching its goal of 6,000 people per day and nearly doubling the city’s weekly administration of coronavirus vaccines. There were 51,300 doses of vaccine — first and second doses combined — were administered in the city during the week that ended Feb. 28, Farley said. Last week, that number grew to more than 90,000.

The convention center site will run for eight weeks, but will switch to delivering only second doses after the first three weeks. Farley said officials are discussing the potential of offering the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine during the final two weeks, but said he would also like the federal government to extend the clinic.

“We’d love to have the federal government stay here beyond those eight weeks,” Farley said.

» READ MORE: Philly’s first federal COVID-19 mass vaccination site already is having to fend off people who aren’t eligible

— Laura McCrystal

New COVID-19 cases continue to remain basically flat in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as officials race to vaccinate residents to prevent the spread of variants.

Pennsylvania is averaging 2,472 new cases a day over the past seven days, down slightly over the past two weeks. The commonwealth reported 2,975 new cases on Tuesday after reporting the fewest infections over the weekend since mid-October.

New Jersey is averaging 2,990 new cases a day, a 12% increase over the past two weeks. The state reported 3,434 new cases on Tuesday.

The good news is in both states, COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths have continued to decline, though both are lagging indicators that tend to trend behind cases.

Pennsylvania has now administered more than 3 million vaccine doses — 2.1 million first doses, and 981,000 second doses. New Jersey is now up to 2.6 million doses — nearly 1.7 million first doses, and 869,000 second doses.

— Rob Tornoe

The House is poised to approve a sweeping $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill and send it to President Joe Biden to sign, a major early legislative victory for the new president and the Democrats who control Congress.

A vote by the full House is set for Wednesday, following consideration by the House Rules Committee on Tuesday.

Despite united Republican opposition and a narrow Democratic majority, House Democratic leaders expressed confidence on Tuesday that they will have the votes to approve the plan. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) said he was “110 percent confident” of success.

Final passage would come ahead of a prime-time speech Biden is planning for Thursday to mark the one-year anniversary of the nation plunging into widespread shutdowns to combat the devastating coronavirus pandemic, which decimated the economy and has killed more than 520,000 Americans. Although the economy is rebounding, millions still remain unemployed with the poorest Americans hit hardest.

» READ MORE: Senate passes $1.9 trillion stimulus bill. Here’s what Pa. politicians, advocates are saying.

— Washington Post

Philadelphia restaurants, hotels, and other hospitality businesses hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic can begin to apply for new relief funds next week, the city announced Tuesday.

Philadelphia will award $17 million to eligible business with fewer than 300 full-time employees in the form of grants, awarded in $5,000 increments with a cap of $50,000.

Applications will open online to eligible businesses on March 15, and all applications will be reviewed by April 5, the city said. This is in addition to the city’s COVID-19 Restaurant and Gym Relief Program, which was announced in January and is expected to begin distributing awards this month.

The money is part of the COVID-19 Hospitality Industry Recovery Program, a new relief program announced by Gov. Tom Wolf last week that will provide $145 million to struggling hospitality businesses across the commonwealth. Guidelines are available on the Department of Community and Economic Development’s website, and each county will be responsible for dispersing the funds.

“Businesses in the hospitality industry have been among the hardest hit, and thanks to this new funding from the commonwealth, we’ll be able to provide needed support to this industry that plays a critical role in Philadelphia’s economy,” Mayor Jim Kenney said in a statement.

— Rob Tornoe

About 86,000 Philadelphia residents are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, roughly 7.2% of the city’s estimated adult population, according to data provided by both the city and state health departments.

Through Sunday, the city has administered nearly 407,000 million COVID-19 vaccine doses — 285,065 first doses, and 121,840 second doses. But more than 100,000 first doses and nearly 54,000 second doses have gone to people who live outside Philadelphia.

Overall, about 19.2% of the city’s adult population has received at least one vaccine shot.

Philadelphia is averaging 12,214 vaccinations a day over the past seven days. That’s up 64% over the past two weeks, when the city was averaging about 7,400 vaccinations a day, according to an Inquirer analysis.

Last week, city officials pushed forward their estimated timeline for vaccinating all adults. Philadelphia officials have predicted most residents will be able to be vaccinated by mid-to-late summer, estimating that 150,000 vaccine doses per week will arrive in the city by May 31.

The pace of vaccinations has quickened in Pennsylvania as well. More than 981,000 Pennsylvania residents outside of Philadelphia are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and the commonwealth has administered over 3 million first doses through March 8.

The United States is averaging 2.17 million vaccinations a day, and at least 60 million Americans have receive at least one vaccine shot. A total of 31.29 million Americans have received two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and are considered fully vaccinated.

» READ MORE: Philly speeds up estimated timeline for vaccinating all adults

— Rob Tornoe and Chris A. Williams

Officials in Philadelphia and Delaware will offer coronavirus updates on Tuesday. Here’s a schedule of how to watch and stream:

— Rob Tornoe

A freeze on water shutoffs for Philadelphia residents struggling to pay bills has been extended until April 2022, the Philadelphia Water Department announced.

The department says since the start of the pandemic, more than 70,000 household have taken advantage of the moratorium, aimed at helping families weather the financial storm. Another 15,000 households have had their water restored after having been shutoff, the department said.

Residents must apply for assistance to prevent being penalized for overdue bills, and the account balance will continue to increase each month a payment isn’t made. Information for assistance is on the department’s website.

— Rob Tornoe

The fight over vaccinating Philadelphia’s suburban counties intensified Monday, as Southeastern Pennsylvania politicians demanded that the state send more vaccine doses and the state Health Department indicated it had no plans to boost the region’s share.

The state has consistently doled out “far smaller amounts” of vaccine than requested by the four counties, the counties’ leaders said Monday as a backlash to a Sunday Zoom call the Department of Health held with the region’s officials grew.

The confusion worsened as the Department of Health conveyed shifting messages Monday afternoon. A Health Department spokesperson said in a news release that suggestions that the collar counties had not received their fair share of vaccine doses were “false accusations.” But when pressed for details at a news briefing a few minutes later, the spokesperson said the state was not denying there was an undersupply.

And despite a pledge by acting Health Secretary Alison Beam to gradually increase vaccine supply to shorted counties, it was not clear on Monday whether the Department of Health even knew which counties statewide needed such fixes.

The state hasn’t completed an analysis that would identify which counties are receiving less than they should under the state’s allocation formula, spokesperson Barry Ciccocioppo said. The Department of Health could not name any counties that needed the help they had pledged to provide.

» READ MORE: ‘What is the plan?’: Suburban Pa. officials blast Dept. of Health over region’s vaccine supply as dispute intensifies

— Justine McDaniel and Erin McCarthy

Hundreds of thousands of patients who receive treatment for high-risk conditions like cancer and diabetes at Philadelphia hospitals are unable to receive the COVID-19 vaccine from the doctors who care for them, simply because they don’t live in the city.

Philadelphia receives its vaccine allocations from the federal government, and is treated separately from the rest of Pennsylvania. The city is permitted to use its vaccines for health-care workers who live in the suburbs but work in the city. However, the same is not true for patients.

Penn Medicine alone has 280,000 patients in the suburbs who are eligible for the vaccine either due to age or health conditions; the health system has managed to vaccinate just under 3,000 of them. By contrast, Penn has provided vaccines to 21,000 of its 200,000 eligible patients who live in Philadelphia.

Thomas Farley, Philadelphia’s health commissioner, said the city has asked the state to provide vaccines to the city’s health systems so that they can inoculate their suburban patients as well.

In Sunday’s call with suburban lawmakers, acting state Health Secretary Allison Beam said the state just doesn’t have enough vaccine to give doses to Philadelphia.

» READ MORE: Philly hospitals care for thousands of suburban patients but can’t give them COVID-19 vaccines.

— Aubrey Whelan, Jason Laughlin, and Justine McDaniel

— John Duchneskie