The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently deployed staff and a Mobile Vaccination Unit, a self-contained vaccination center on wheels, and staff to support the City of Philadelphia’s pandemic fight.
These FEMA resources will support mobile vaccinations in hard-hit communities throughout the city and a central vaccination location in partnership with Philadelphia’s Black Doctor’s Consortium (BDC) through mid-February. Over the past year, BDC’s mobile COVID-19 testing and vaccination operation have broken down many barriers supporting tests and vaccinations for thousands of Philadelphians throughout many historically unreserved communities.
FEMA clinical and administrative staff will support BDC’s efforts out of its Ala Stanford Center for Health Equity (ASHE Center) in North Philadelphia. The ASHE Center provides an array of primary and pediatric care, along with COVID-19 testing and vaccines since its opening in October 2021. Additionally, FEMA staff and the Mobile Vaccination Unit will support BDC’s partnership with the Philadelphia School District, providing mobile vaccination capabilities at school facilities throughout the city.
The mobile vaccination sites will be able to provide up to several hundred vaccinations per day, with both Black Doctor’s Consortium and FEMA contracted clinical staff delivering shots in arms. FEMA non-clinical staff, supporting the operations administrative needs and logistics, will free up BDC’s medical personnel to focus more efforts on clinical roles.
This operation kicked off on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day on for the FEMA staff supporting this mission. FEMA staff supported BDC’s COVID-19 testing and vaccinations at the ASHE Center, as well as testing at the Greater Philadelphia MLK Day event at Girard College. Black Doctor’s Consortium clinical staff were able to provide hundreds of COVID-19 tests at both events with the enhanced capabilities provided by the addition of federal staff.
This most recent deployment to Philadelphia is in addition to a federally supported COVID-19 testing site located at the Cibotti Recreation Center in Southwest Philadelphia.
For more information on BDC’s testing and vaccination schedules, visit: www.bdccares.com.
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