Philly finally has more COVID-19 vaccine — but now it’s not getting distributed fast enough, health commissioner says

Philadelphia’s supply of coronavirus vaccine doses has increased — so much that city officials are now concerned they cannot distribute them as quickly as they are arriving, the health commissioner said Friday, setting up a potential backlog of doses even as residents clamor to get the still-scarce shots.

“The greater problem right now is not the doses available to us but how quickly we can get those doses into people’s arms,” said commissioner Thomas Farley.

The shift from concerns about vaccine shortages to distribution represents a turnabout — and some possible relief — for the city after weeks of limited supply. But it doesn’t mean more people are eligible just yet — Farley said the city will likely not be able to expand vaccinations to its general population until June.

As hospitals said they could ramp up vaccinations if more doses are available, Farley also released details about which pandemic restrictions will be rolled back beginning Monday. Declining case counts now allow for spectators at sporting events, the reopening of senior centers, and food and drink in movie theaters. More restrictions can be lifted this spring if cases continue to decrease and as more residents are vaccinated, Farley said — making the pace of vaccine distribution critical to economic recovery and a return to normalcy.

After Farley said he was encouraging the city’s hospitals to open more clinics, Temple University Health System chief medical officer Tony Reed said the hospital can easily move from administering up to 4,500 shots a week to 6,000, and would take only a few days to plan for a larger increase.

“We’ll just size it to whatever we need to,” Reed said, predicting “we’ll go to our max space capacity within the next seven days, and if they want us to go bigger from there, we’ll search for another space and go bigger.”

» READ MORE: Philadelphia coronavirus restrictions eased, with guidance on sporting events, restaurants, theaters and more

With weekly vaccine shipments steadily increasing, the city opened three clinics this week to inoculate residents in underserved neighborhoods and added to the list of pharmacies that are distributing shots. The federal government is expected to open a clinic at the Pennsylvania Convention Center next week that can vaccinate up to 6,000 people per day.

Farley said “there is some amount of backlog” of the Pfizer vaccine, which goes largely to hospitals because it must be stored in special freezers. Temple and Penn don’t have large reserves in their freezers, and the extra Pfizer availability is “a relatively new phenomenon,” said PJ Brennan, chief medical officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Statewide, officials are “shooting for” opening vaccinations to the general public sometime during the summer, a Department of Health adviser said at a Friday news briefing. Though the state’s vaccine supply has been increasing, the commonwealth and its vaccine providers are continuing to dig out of a large second-dose shortage that was exacerbated by last week’s storm.

The state is focused on “working through 1A,” Pennsylvania Department of Health senior health adviser Lindsey Mauldin said, and officials aren’t ready to say when the group of people eligible for inoculation might expand.

In the city, thousands of eligible people age 75 and older, with high-risk health conditions, or certain essential jobs have yet to be vaccinated. Farley said he hopes to expand eligibility in May to people 65 and over and other essential workers.

“We do have some limits on how quickly the vaccine providers can set up clinics and get the staff trained and do all the work around this,” Farley said. “So it would still take some time to get up to scale.”

The new guidelines taking effect in Philadelphia Monday will align the city with statewide restrictions in many — but not all — areas.

That includes the state’s indoor and outdoor gathering guidelines, which affect theaters, stadiums, and other venues: The changes will allow the Phillies to have at least some fans at Citizens Bank Park for opening day in April, though the Flyers and Sixers said they would not allow spectators because the state’s rules remained too limited for indoor venues.

The city will also allow restaurants to have up to six people per table for outdoor dining, and won’t require them to be from the same household. Outdoor catered events of up to 100 people will also be permitted, but indoor catered events remain prohibited.

Senior centers can reopen for the first time in nearly a year, with a requirement that everyone inside wears KN95 masks or two masks at once. And religious services can expand from 10% to 20% capacity.

“I’m optimistic about where we’re going in the next few months,” Farley said.

However, major events won’t be returning to the city for at least a few weeks. Philadelphia is extending its ban on special event permits, which expires Monday, until at least March 15, Mayor Jim Kenney’s office said Friday.

Though a small backlog is acceptable, Farley said he would like the city to give out a larger share of its available doses each week. The city did not specify what percentage of doses are used each week.

Penn Health System’s Brennan said he had not yet heard whether the system’s allocation would be increased, but he said Penn was “very willing and eager” to take more Pfizer doses for their patients. In total, Penn had given about 18,000 doses to patients at its three city hospitals as of the end of the week.

The health system can’t take Pfizer for community clinics right away because it has clinics booked through April that have to be finished with planned Moderna doses, including second doses.

“Once we clear our initial roster of events, we’ll be eager to accept Pfizer for the community, and we’re eager to take more still for the patients,” Brennan said.

The news that the city was asking hospitals to increase distribution of potentially unused doses was vexing to some.

“It’s very frustrating to hear that we have the supply but not the infrastructure to reach our most vulnerable Philadelphians,” said Karen Buck, chief executive of the Senior Law Center, which advocates for elderly Pennsylvanians.

Only about 14% of the shots administered in the city have gone to people over the age of 75.

“We need to reach these folks,” Buck said.

In total, the city has given 196,000 first doses and 97,000 second doses to date.

» READ MORE: How Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine is different from Pfizer’s and Moderna’s

Farley said ramping up distribution while focusing on equity will require not just hospitals’, but a large network of providers’ targeting different populations. As of this week, Farley said 22% of people vaccinated in Philadelphia are Black, up from 8% from the city’s initial reports last month. But that percentage is still not reflective of the city’s population.

The Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, which runs mass clinics in the city, announced Friday that it will no longer register residents online for vaccine appointments and will instead ask people to simply come get in line at their clinics.

Ala Stanford, the group’s founder, said that instead of staffing phone lines and relying on internet signups, a first-come, first-served approach will advance equity goals.

“We were worsening a health disparity, if you will, because those who didn’t have access to phones and computers were unable to register,” said Stanford, a surgeon.

Max Mercado, who runs a private practice in Northeast Philadelphia, said that about half of his 4,000 to 5,000 patients would likely be eligible for vaccination now. But he has not been approved to provide vaccine through his practice.

“We really need to open the gates and get the population vaccinated,” said Mercado.

As vaccine becomes more and more available, with the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine reaching the city as early as next week and with Moderna and Pfizer working to catch up to demand, Brennan said staffing could become an issue for hospitals. Penn is using volunteers and doesn’t have extra staff to deploy for vaccinations, he said.

“To keep it going on a big scale — and this should go on for months — we really need staff to help,” he said.

Staff writers Ellie Rushing, Jason Laughlin, Erin McCarthy, and Sam Carchidi contributed to this article.