Philly expands vaccine eligibility as supply of doses plateaus

Philadelphia is expanding eligibility for the coronavirus vaccine to include members of the clergy, people with intellectual disabilities, and anyone who takes immune-suppressing medications.

The city remains in phase 1b of vaccine distribution, which includes about 400,000 Philadelphians and is primarily made up of people 65 or older, frontline essential workers, and people with high-risk health complications.

Public Health Commissioner Thomas Farley announced Friday that the three new populations will be moved into phase 1b, effective immediately.

The city included clergy in 1b because more houses of worship were reopening, and people with intellectual disabilities because a recent Thomas Jefferson University study showed they were at greater risk of death due to COVID-19, Farley said.

For the third group of newly eligible, the city expanded the definition of immunosuppression, one of the qualifying high-risk medical conditions. Previously, the city’s definition was limited to people with transplanted organs and those who were living with HIV. Now, anyone taking immunity-decreasing medication, regardless of the reason, is qualified.

Farley said he did not expect the addition of the new groups to significantly slow the city’s efforts to complete phase 1b. The largest of the three new categories, people with intellectual disabilities, includes about 7,000 to 8,000 residents, he said.

The announcement came as the city’s supply of the vaccine is plateauing following weeks of continual increases, Farley said.

”The supply of doses that we’re getting from the federal government are now level,” Farley said. “Unfortunately the uncertainty as to how many doses we’re going to get per week has been a problem from the very beginning.”

The city received 22,000 first doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week, and 15,600 first doses of Moderna, Farley said Tuesday. Another approximately 6,000 vaccines were sent directly to pharmacies in the city. (The city got an initial supply of the more recently approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine weeks ago, but the federal government has not yet said when Philadelphia will get more.)

Additionally, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and military personnel administer about 42,000 shots per week at the mass vaccination clinic in the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

City data show a sharp change in the demographics of the people vaccinated at that site this week, with the recipient pool significantly more racially and ethnically diverse during the first two days of a new walk-in policy meant to boost service to residents of under-vaccinated neighborhoods.

Previously, the site had fueled a sharp rise in the racial gap in vaccinations when it doubled the city’s daily inoculation capacity. On Wednesday, the city began reserving half the FEMA site’s 6,000 daily doses for residents from 22 under-vaccinated zip codes, who were allowed to walk in for vaccination. (Previously, vaccinations were by appointment only.)

» READ MORE: Philly is trying to improve vaccine racial equity. The FEMA site made it worse.

In the first two days of the new policy, non-Hispanic white recipients made up 36.7% of vaccinations at the Convention Center, down from the 57.7% of vaccinations the site had previously administered. Black recipients made up 19.5% of vaccinations, up from 12.9% previously.

“Early data says that this is working,” Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said at a Friday news conference.

Farley said the FEMA site also passed a milestone Friday afternoon, vaccinating 100,000 people since it opened. The site will switch next week to giving second doses to people who already got their first doses of the Pfizer vaccine at the Convention Center since it opened earlier this month.

Farley said the city is in talks with FEMA for a second federally supported mass vaccination clinic. The social services nonprofit Esperanza’s facility in the Hunting Park neighborhood of North Philadelphia is one option being discussed, Farley said, which could improve the racial demographics of vaccinations in the city.

The city still expects to transition to phase 1c at some point in April and to phase 2, which includes all residents, by May 1.

As of Friday, about 416,000 people had been at least partially vaccinated in the city, with 164,000 fully vaccinated.

The city is also working on its vaccine distribution efforts, with the Department of Public Health and Fire Department developing plans to have paramedics and EMS providers help vaccinate homebound Philadelphians, according to a Health Department spokesperson.

Staff writer Aubrey Whelan contributed to this article.