Mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic gives doses to 4,000 Philadelphians from hardest-hit areas

Philadelphia’s Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium vaccinated 4,000 people in the city's first 24-hour mass vaccination clinic this weekend. 

The clinic was open to people in phase 1b of vaccine distribution who live in zip codes the organization identified as "hardest hit" by COVID-19, including zip code 19104 where Penn is located. Phase 1b includes frontline workers at high risk for exposure, people working and residing in congregate settings, people 75 years and older, and people with the highest-risk medical conditions.

The clinic remained opened from noon Friday until noon Saturday, with lines pouring out of Temple University’s Liacouras Center, where the clinic was held. Wait times exceeded 10 hours, prompting people to wrap themselves in blankets and sit in lawn chairs to keep themselves warm, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The consortium exceeded both their goal of administering 2,000 shots and their capacity of administering 2,500 doses. Around 1 a.m., the City of Philadelphia delivered another 2,000 doses, allowing the consortium to vaccinate more people, 6ABC News reported.

The consortium hosted the mass vaccination clinic to rectify the racial disparities in Philadelphia's vaccine rollout, according to the Inquirer.

Although more than 40% of city residents are Black, only 20% of the Philadelphians vaccinated as of Friday morning were Black, according to the Inquirer. White people had received 56% of the vaccine supply, and almost half of Philadelphia's shots were given to people who live outside of the city.

The consortium is working with the City of Philadelphia and the Liacouras Center to determine if they will host another mass vaccination clinic, 6ABC News reported.