COVID In Philadelphia: Dr. Thomas Farley Warns Residents About Holiday Plans As City Looks To Begin Vaccine Distribution
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- There has been another monumental step towards turning the page on the pandemic with the first doses of the vaccine being delivered to all 50 states. On Tuesday, Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley joined Eyewitness News to talk more about the distribution of the vaccine in the city.
Dr. Farley says the vaccines are going to hospitals across the city and those hospitals can start vaccinating right away.
The original plan was that the vaccine would arrive Tuesday and distribution could start Wednesday but some doses arrived a little earlier than expected.
The administering of the vaccine will be based on a priority ranking that the national government has developed and that the local advisory committees have come up with.
Dr. Farley says that includes people like health care workers, then people in long-term care facilities, staff and the residents who work there.
After that, they'll move onto "critical infrastructure workers" who are people who have to work through this and exposed to the virus every day.
This is a process that Dr. Farley says is going to play out over periods of months.
And with the holiday season, the health commissioner is warning everyone to take safety precautions even more seriously than we have in the past.
This includes wearing a mask when you're with anybody from outside of your household.
He also says not to gather over the holidays with people other than your immediate household members.
Dr. Farley warns that if you do, we could see a spike like we did over Thanksgiving.
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