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Philadelphia residents who wish to be vaccinated against COVID-19 can now use the city’s official vaccine registration website to express interest in making appointments to receive their vaccines.
The website – published in English and Spanish – allows city residents to submit contact information and personal history to help the city’s health department determine when users will be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine. This will be based on the supply and updated priority guidelines established by the Philadelphia Vaccine Working Group.
Those who complete the form of interest displayed on the site will be contacted later by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health or one of the city’s vaccine partners when it is their turn to make appointments.
Health department officials have ensured that the site is secure and that personal data collected from the form is protected using the same level of security as other health information managed by the department.
“Having a COVID vaccine is a major step forward, but we understand that many Philadelphians are frustrated not knowing how to get the vaccine,” said Dr. Thomas Farley, Philadelphia health commissioner. “While we cannot bring up more vaccine doses, with this listing we can at least assure interested Philadelphians that they will be contacted when the opportunity to be vaccinated presents itself.”
The city’s supply of COVID-19 vaccines remains extremely limited at this time. The city’s website does not allow residents to schedule an appointment, but rather to request to be contacted when they are able to make one.
It can take weeks or months before people who sign up for the COVID-19 vaccine receive calls to make appointments.
The health department is also working with other organizations that have set up “pre-registration sites,” including Philly Fighting COVID, the Black Doctor ‘s COVID-19 Consortium and Acme. The city aims to ensure that the information these groups have already collected will be added to the city’s database.
There had been some confusion among residents about whether existing vaccination partner sites, such as Philly Fighting COVID, would upload updated information to the city’s official website.
“As our database is being built, it is made with the goal of being able to combine easily with others,” a spokesperson for the health department said. “While it is possible that some people who signed up with these forms may be contacted in the future, after they have already received their vaccine, we don’t see this necessarily being a bad thing.
The health department said it is developing tools to allow residents to register using any partner site – or all sites – so they can be contacted when they are eligible to be vaccinated. .
Philadelphia is in phase 1B of its vaccination plan, which includes certain groups of essential workers, people over the age of 75 and people with certain high-risk medical conditions, in addition to healthcare workers who were already covered by phase 1A.
“It is important to stress that at some point in the future, all those who indicate they want to be vaccinated will be contacted and will have the possibility of making an appointment,” the health department said in a statement. “There is no reason to call your personal health care provider to ask them to schedule an appointment.”
The city has been told it will continue to receive a combined total of approximately 20,000 doses of Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines per week – plus the appropriate second doses – until the end of February, which Farley said described as a “very limited supply.”
It is hoped and expected that the production of the COVID-19 vaccine will increase significantly in the weeks and months to come.
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