Philadelphia opens first mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Center City on Friday

PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia hopes to innoculate around 15,000 home healthcare workers beginning Friday at the city's first mass vaccination cite in Center City.

The pop-up clinic will be held at the Philadelphia Convention Center starting at 8:30 a.m. Officials say the clinic is designed to administer as many as 4,500 vaccines a day. 

Home healthcare workers who may not be affiliated with larger healthcare systems that administered doses will be able to receive the COVID-19 starting Friday.

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More clinics are planned for areas around the city in the days and weeks ahead to help Philadelphia reach herd immunity "quickly and safely."

"There will be a clinic today at the convention center only for healthcare workers and only healthcare workers who have been invited, so I don't want any volunteers showing up there," Farley said. 

According to the latest data, Philadelphia has inoculated more than 31,000 people with the first dose of the highly effective coronavirus vaccine. The vaccine rollout has been sluggish so far, which prompted Dr. Farley to estimate that it would take at least 12 months to vaccinate most of the city's population. 

Appearing on Good Day Philadelphia on Friday, Dr. Farley said Philadelphia is currently only getting 20,000 doses per week which has slowed the vaccination process. He is hopeful that the city's allotment of doses will increase as production ramps up.

The city plans to plot out the next steps in the massive vaccination effort in the coming days, according to Farley.

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