More monkeypox vaccine on the way to Philadelphia

The city health department plans to distribute the vaccine in three phases.

Cory Sharber

August 23, 2022

File photo: A nurse administers a monkeypox vaccine at a walk-in clinic at the North Jersey Community Research Initiative in Newark, N.J., Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Philadelphia is now set to receive 3,300 additional monkeypox vaccine doses, after it was announced last week the city’s shipment would be reduced to about 700.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health says 3,305 JYNNEOS vaccine vials have been allocated by the CDC to Philadelphia. That’s in addition to the 720 announced last week.

According to a release, vaccines will be distributed in three phases between Aug. 22 and Sep. 30 with the department getting about 1,100 shots in each shipment. The second portion will be ordered once 85% of the doses have been administered.

In a release, Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole said she is “deeply grateful to our federal partners for this additional allocation of vaccine, which is so greatly needed in Philadelphia right now.”

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She went on to note that “coupled with the shift to the dose conserving intradermal approach, this gives us the opportunity to vaccinate far more Philadelphians at high risk of infection and hopefully to prevent the outbreak from spreading further.”

According to the city’s monkeypox dashboard, 4,228 doses have been administered. Of those, 93% have gone to men. People between the ages of 30-39 have received 42% of the total shots given out. White people have received the majority of the doses provided so far, making up 57%.

So far, 257 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed within Philadelphia. Of those, 81% have been confirmed amongst cisgender men. People between the ages of 30-39 make up 47% of the positive results. Black people currently account for 56% of those that have been infected.

As of Monday, 15,433 cases have been confirmed in the United States. Within the Delaware Valley region: Pennsylvania has 422, New Jersey has 420, Delaware has 17, and Maryland has 379.

So far, the U.S. has shipped around 700,000 vials of the monkeypox vaccine to states and territories for distribution. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the first priority is to vaccinate the 1.7 million people who are considered at the highest risk.

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