The additions to the group include people with intellectual disabilities, people taking drugs that suppress their immune system for any reason, and members of the clergy, said Dr Thomas Farley, health commissioner. The change takes effect immediately.
Currently, people in the city’s 1A and 1B groups are being vaccinated. The former includes health workers and people in long-term care facilities, while the latter includes a much wider range of people. Click here to see who else qualifies for the 1B group.
Farley also noted that the federal government’s vaccine supply is now declining after sustained weekly increases. He said the supply of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will remain stable, but will not increase for the next three weeks, while it is still unclear when the city will receive more Johnson & Johnson doses.
“We will have to look closely to make sure that the supply of vaccine enters the city, meets our ability to deliver it into the city,” he said.
As of March 17, the city had fully vaccinated nearly 157,000 people and at least partially vaccinated about 402,000.
Farley warned that coronavirus infections had recently begun to increase in Philadelphia, and the city now averages about 300 cases a week. In Europe, some countries had to re-lock due to the increasing infections.
“We all need to be careful not to give up too soon,” Farley said.