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Additional VFAAR Flu Vaccine Now Available for Ordering

The CDC has allotted additional doses of flu vaccine to the Immunization Program. VFAAR flu is now available for ordering. Due to the limited capacity, orders are limited to 200 doses per site to ensure everyone has access to flu vaccine.These flu vaccines are now available to order for your VFAAR patients:

VFAAR
- Flulaval prefilled syringes
- Flucelvax prefilled syringes

Please visit our flu ordering page for more information on the available vaccines.As a reminder, VFAAR flu vaccine can be administered to all adults regardless of insurance status during the 2022-2023 flu season. This is a special allowance by the CDC during flu season this year. While flu is available for everyone, continue to vaccinate insured adults with flu from your privately purchased flu supply. However, if private doses are not available (because you’re waiting for your shipment or your supply is depleted), do not miss an opportunity; remember everyone is eligible to receive a dose from the VFAAR supply. For more information, visit our website.

Have questions?Contact Christine Wilson at 215.685.6728 or christine.wilson@phila.gov or Charma Miller at 215.685.6667 or charma.miller@phila.gov for assistance.Thank you for keeping Philadelphia healthy by fighting flu! For more information about influenza in Philadelphia, visit our flu page.

MPOX Eligibility: Anyone At Risk Can Be Vaccinated

Monkeypox (mpox) vaccine eligibility has expanded. Anyone who feels they are at risk for acquiring monkeypox is now eligible for vaccination. They do not need to meet any further eligibility criteria. Outreach should continue to those who are most at risk, including gay, bisexual, transgender, other men who have sex with men, or non-binary persons who meet the following criteria:

Have had multiple or anonymous sex partners in the past 14 days.
Have had any newly diagnosed STI in the past 12 months, including gonorrhea, chlamydia, early syphilis, or HIV.
Have recently attended or plan to attend any venue where anonymous sex or sex with multiple partners will occur (e.g. saunas, bathhouse, sex clubs, sex parties).
Have met recent partners or plan to meet new partners through social media platforms (such as Grindr, Tinder or Scruff), or at clubs, raves, sex parties, saunas).

In addition, anyone with known close contact (skin-to-skin) with someone with monkeypox in the past 14 days should be vaccinated immediately.

Remember to give your patients a Monkeypox Vaccine Information Statement (VIS) before vaccinating.

Vaccine Shipment Delays During the Holiday Season

Submit orders by Wednesday, December 7.

During the holiday season – from mid-December to early January – the distribution center that ships vaccine provided through the Vaccines for Children (VFC) and Vaccines for Adults At Risk (VFAAR) programs will have reduced shipping capacity. Orders submitted during this time will take longer than usual to ship.To make sure that you have the vaccines you need during this time, submit orders by 3:00 PM on Wednesday, December 7. These will be processed and shipped out as usual. Be sure to check the status of your order within 2 business days of submitting.Continue to check for tracking information daily as FedEx and UPS shipping delays continue. Use this job aid to assist you with reviewing this information.Orders submitted after Wednesday, December 7 may not be delivered until the week of January 2, at the earliest. The distribution center will return to normal operations on January 2.For assistance with completing your reconciliation or submitting your order, email our team at DPHProviderhelp@phila.gov.

Storage & Handling Checkup: Temperature Monitoring

Vaccines are temperature sensitive and must be stored in specific temperature ranges to preserve their viability. Vaccines that are exposed to out of range temperatures can lose potency, and people vaccinated with these vaccines will not get the protection they need.

To ensure that every dose of vaccine that is administered at your site is viable, it is critical to monitor unit temperatures in two ways:

Digital Data Logger (DDL) – records temperatures, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- Why? This provides documentation that every dose in your unit has been stored at the right temperature from the time you received it until it is administered to a patient.
Paper Temperature Logs – records twice daily temperature checks.
- Why? This provides a chance to visually check the unit and ensure that the temperatures have not been out out range.

Check Up: Review, Evaluate, and Update!

Make sure that your clinic is recording, reporting and documenting your temperate data the right way.

1. Download and submit your DDL data and send it to our team every 28 days, when ordering vaccine or experiencing a temperature excursion.

2. Fill out the paper temperature log twice each clinic day. When filling out the paper log, always use the DDL as your reference.

Make sure you have the most up-to-date logs:Fridge Temperature Log (Fahrenheit)Freezer Temperature Log (Fahrenheit)Fridge Temperature Log (Celsius)Freezer Temperature Log (Celsius)3. Keep your paper and DDL (electronic) temperature logs on file for 3 years for VFC and VFAAR providers and for 7 years for COVID providers. Our team will review your paper temperature logs during the next site visit to your clinic.

All of our Storage and Handling resources can be accessed here.

Have questions? Reach out to our team at TempCheck@phila.gov for assistance.

Monkeypox Vaccine Deliveries Paused for Thanksgiving

Monkeypox Vaccine Deliveries Paused for Thanksgiving

Monkeypox vaccine deliveries will be paused during the week of Thanksgiving, November 21 – 25, 2022. The last delivery for monkeypox vaccine will be on Monday, November 21.

Ordering will remain open this week until Thursday, by 5pm. Remember to submit your temperatures to tempcheck@phila.gov and complete a reconciliation of vaccine on hand for your order to be approved.

Click the button below to submit your order request for monkeypox vaccine.

Order Monkeypox Vaccine

Deliveries for monkeypox vaccine will resume on the week of November 28.

Thank you for keeping Philadelphia safe and healthy! If you have any questions, please contact Kenya Mack at Kenya.Mack@phila.gov.

Limited Single Dose Vials of Pfizer Bivalent Becoming Available

On Monday, November 14 through Tuesday, November 15, PDPH will open pre-ordering in Philavax for a limited amount of the updated (bivalent) Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for people 12 years of age or older in single-dose vials. Deliveries will begin several days later. Single dose vials will not be available for ordering through Monday.com – partial ordering – or pickup.This limited rollout is intended to expand the number of locations that offer the updated vaccine. Only sites that would otherwise not be able to utilize the standard six-dose per vial bivalent Pfizer will be approved to order single dose vials. Large health systems and sites with regular patient volumes/throughput should continue to order the six-dose per vial bivalent Pfizer.Ancillary kits will not be distributed with orders of single-dose vials. Single-dose vials do not require the use of low-dead-volume (LDV) syringes.Quick Facts:Single-Dose Vial Pfizer Bivalent Booster (Ages 12+)• NDC: 59267-1404-02• Configuration: 10 single-dose vials/carton• Minimum quantity per order: 50 doses• Maximum quantity per order: 150 doses• Product dimensions: 1.457 in length × 1.535 in width × 3.504 in height• Storage and handling: Same as other Pfizer tris products (e.g., store at ultra-low temperature until expiry, may refrigerate up to 10 weeks within expiry period)• No ancillary kits included with single-dose vial orders

Moderna Shelf Life Extension

FDA has approved a shelf-life extension for the following Moderna10 products, which have been extended by three months. Below, find a table with updated expiration dates for the specific lots impacted by the extension. For the most current information, please visit the Moderna website.

With the Moderna Vial Expiration Checker, Moderna also allows vaccine providers to look up expiration dates by lot number, which includes the new expiration dates listed above. To find the expiration date, locate the lot number printed on the carton and/or vial and enter it into the lot number search field on the website, then press “submit.”

For additional information, view the CDC overview of Moderna vaccine.

Matchmaking Program Coming to an End

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 Matchmaking Program would like to send a huge thank you for your time, commitment, and expertise you’ve given in partnering with vaccination clinics to provide vaccine. After careful consideration, we have determined to end the program effective November 4, 2022. 57 vaccination clinics were successfully matched for the duration of PDPH’s COVID-19 Matchmaking Program, and 77 providers were enrolled. These vaccinations clinics included community-based clinics, health fairs, and cultural events to name a few!If patients are looking to get vaccinated at their earliest convenience, you may direct them to use this link to find a facility in close proximity to them. Again, we thank you for your contributions and efforts to partner with vaccinations clinics to serve vaccine. You have made an immense difference through your dedication and continued support!

Monkeypox Provider Survey

The Philadelphia Health Department is looking to identify provider offices and clinics that administer monkeypox JYNNEOS vaccine to non-patients and offer walk-in hours. If you are a monkeypox vaccine provider, please fill out the brief survey.

Health Department Publishes Request for Proposal for HIV Testing in Pharmacies

Health Department Publishes Request for Proposal for HIV Testing in Pharmacies

PHILADELPHIA—The Health Department is making four to six grants of up to $75,000 available to increase the availability of low-barrier HIV testing and connection to care services in select priority zip codes in Philadelphia. The request for proposals is part of the Health Department’s community-driven Plan to End the HIV Epidemic in Philadelphia, which envisions decreasing new HIV infections by 75% by 2025 and by 90% by 2030. Grant submissions may be made by applicants who operate pharmacies in the listed priority zip codes, and may address HIV testing, information distribution, linkage to care, and participation in training.

The accessibility of pharmacies for HIV testing presents a unique opportunity for pharmacists to contribute to the identification of undiagnosed HIV. An estimated 90% of urban consumers live within two miles of a pharmacy. A CDC-funded feasibility study offering rapid, point-of-care testing in community pharmacies and retail clinics found that pharmacies and retail clinics represent a vast, largely untapped potential for the delivery of HIV testing in settings that are more accessible and, for some people, less stigmatizing than traditional testing.

With this RFP, the Health Department’s goal is to expand opportunities for HIV testing in neighborhoods in Philadelphia with the highest incidence of persons newly diagnosed with HIV in 2019 through community-based retail pharmacies.

Eligible applicants are independent and non-independent pharmacies currently operating in the priority areas listed in this request for proposals or with appropriate justification and prior approval of the Department in an immediately adjacent ZIP code neighborhood. Based on local analysis of recent data on HIV testing, newly diagnosed HIV, and HIV testing resources by zip code, the Health Department has identified 13 priority zip codes for this RFP.

To learn more about the request for proposals, all documentation is available on the eContractPhilly website, under Opportunity 21221013101712. The Health Department’s Community Plan to End the HIV Epidemic in Philadelphia can be downloaded here.