Now, because supplies are no longer limited, he feels as if the county has a “fairly robust capacity” for dealing with the current demand. But we had limited supplies of vaccines - that was a rate-limiting factor,” Lorraine said. We actually had significant infrastructure that would have allowed us to immunize more people quickly. Secondly, there was a significant limitation on supplies of vaccine. So we had basically the entire population to immunize. Number one, we were starting from zero, no one had been immunized. “That was mostly due to two particular issues. He pointed to the early days of vaccinations, when there was a “tremendous backlog” and long lines. If the demand continues to increase, Lorraine said that the county’s current vaccination campaign is scalable, but he doesn’t think it will be necessary. That number climbed to more than 2,000 in November at county vaccination sites. In October, Montco administered doses in the “low 1,000s” range. “Over the course of November, which is where we really got the effect of the boosters, we’ve pretty much doubled our weekly vaccinations,” Lorraine said. Richard Lorraine, medical director for the Office of Public Health, said that since the booster recommendations, the county has seen a definitive uptick in not only booster demand, but also in demand for first-time doses. Rick Hong, medical director for the Delaware Division of Public Health, said that state also sees no current role for mass vaccination clinics like the FEMA-run sites of earlier in the year, because now there is plenty of vaccine supply - the problem is just high demand. Pediatric doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine are prepared at the Jefferson COVID-19 mobile unit clinic at Universal Institute Charter School in South Philadelphia. And for anyone who hasn’t gotten vaccinated or hasn’t gotten their booster, now is the time to do it, because things are absolutely going in the wrong direction,” Garrow said. “We are right now reporting cases as high as we did in May. But health officials still want people to stay as vigilant as they were in May, Garrow said. The city will continue with smaller clinics to reach a variety of neighborhoods. Large-scale clinics: Probably a thing of the pastįor those expecting Philadelphia clinics to revert to the super-FEMA sites of earlier this year, don’t hold your breath. Now this is the highest that we’ve seen since probably May,” Garrow said. “In Philadelphia, we’ve been seeing anywhere from 40,000 to 50,000 doses of vaccine being administered per week. More than 75% of adults in Philadelphia are fully vaccinated, so the demand for shots is not as high as it was at its peak, but it is still increasing. They welcome folks and have plenty of open capacity,” Garrow said. So it was that they come around and they’re in your area. “But there are other places that have the opposite problem, all of these, the Health Department pop-up clinics and a lot of our health centers have ready walk-up availability for a number of different vaccines, including pediatric doses and boosters. Subsequently, there are very few places to get an appointment right away, so people end up on pharmacy waitlists.

He said clinics not run by the city tend to be small and not staffed enough to deal with the surging vaccine demand. In an ideal world, Garrow said, people should be able to walk into any site and get the booster wherever they choose, but “as we’ve gotten into the pandemic, and have gotten more and more choices of vaccine, it makes it more difficult to administer.” James Garrow, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, said the agency has been hearing a lot from individuals who are having a hard time booking appointments at pharmacies. Pugliese recalled seeing one person who went from Southwest Philadelphia to Northeast Philly just to get a booster shot.

Jefferson’s mobile vaccine clinic goes around the city to where vaccines are most needed. “We saw almost a doubling in … interest in people wanting to get booster shots essentially within a week,” he said. Robert Pugliese, who directs the community mobile vaccination program at Jefferson Health, agreed, and said his team is seeing a surge as well. Kasbekar said there are several reasons: Some local pharmacies are short-staffed or overworked there’s greater interest in booster shots after reports about the omicron variant the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authorized boosters for all adults and people want to get vaccinated before traveling later this month. WHYY thanks our sponsors - become a WHYY sponsor

Riteaid booster appointment