Philadelphia residents who want to get the COVID-19 vaccine can now use the city’s official vaccine registration website to express interest in booking appointments to receive their vaccines.
The website, published in English and Spanish, allows city residents to submit contact information and some personal background information to help the city health department determine when users will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. This will be based on the updated supply and priority guidelines established by the Philadelphia Vaccine Working Group.
Those who complete the interest form posted on the site will later contact the Philadelphia Department of Public Health or one of the city’s vaccine partners when it is their turn to schedule appointments.
Health department officials assured that the site is secure and that the personal data collected from the form is protected with the same level of security as other health information maintained by the department.
“Having a COVID vaccine is a big step forward, but we understand that many Philadelphians are frustrated at not knowing how to get vaccinated,” said Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley. “While we can’t make more doses of vaccine appear, with this record, we can at least assure interested Philadelphians that they will get in touch when their chance to get vaccinated arrives.”
The supply of COVID-19 vaccines to the city remains extremely limited at this time. The city website does not allow residents to set an appointment, but requests that they be contacted when they can schedule one.
It may be weeks or months before people who sign up for the COVID-19 vaccine receive calls to make an appointment.
The health department is also working with other organizations that have created “pre-registration sites,” including Philly Fighting COVID, the Black Doctor consortium COVID-19, and Acme. The city aims to ensure that the information that these groups have already collected is added to the city database.
There was some confusion among residents about whether existing vaccine partner sites, such as Philly Fighting COVID, would transfer updated information to the city’s official site.
“As our database is built, it is done with the intention of being able to easily combine with others,” a health department spokesman said. “While it is possible that in the future you will contact some people who have signed up for these forms, after they have already received the vaccine, we do not anticipate that this will necessarily be a bad thing.”
The health department said it is developing tools that will allow residents to register through any associated site (or all sites) so they can be contacted when they are eligible to be inoculated.
Philadelphia is in Phase 1B of its immunization plan, which includes certain groups of essential workers, seniors over the age of 75, and people with certain high-risk medical conditions, in addition to health workers who were already covered by the phase 1A.
“It is important to stress that at some point in the future, you will contact everyone who indicates that you want to be vaccinated and you will be given the opportunity to make an appointment,” the health department said in a statement. “There’s no reason to call your personal health care provider to ask about setting up an appointment.”
The city has reported that it will continue to receive a combined total of about 20,000 doses of Pfizer and Modern COVID-19 vaccines a week, plus the appropriate second doses, until the end of February, which Farley described as a “very limited supply. “
COVID-19 vaccine production is expected and expected to increase significantly in the coming weeks and months.