PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Montgomery County begins giving out Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster shots on Monday.
Philadelphia first started distributing the booster shots on Saturday. Some locations throughout New Jersey began on Friday.
The Montgomery County-run clinics are open on Mondays from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the King of Prussia Mall and at the Willow Grove Parkside Shopping Center. They are also open on Wednesdays and Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
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Two other locations - the Human Services Center in Norristown and Bethel Community Church of Pottstown - are open on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The county is not accepting walk-ins for the boosters. Those who are eligible have to schedule an appointment online and have to bring their CDC vaccination card or a photo of the card on their phone to the clinic.
Those who are 65 and above who received the second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at least six months ago are eligible for a booster. Those with underlying health issues may also get the third shot, along with adults who work in high-risk settings.
“People in homeless shelters. People in group homes. People in prisons. But also, importantly, are people who work with vulnerable communities - our healthcare workers, our teachers, our grocery workers, our public transportation employees,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation.
Walensky, citing a “scientific close call” broke away from the CDC’s advisory panel which voted 9-6 on Thursday against authorizing the vaccine for those in high-risk settings.
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“Because of that close call and because of all the evidence we reviewed, both at the FDA and at the CDC, I felt it was appropriate for those people to also to be eligible for boosters,” she said.
Walensky also said on Sunday that 70 million Americans were still unvaccinated and they were 10 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 and 11 times more likely to die from the illness.
The Montgomery County-run clinics that are offering the boosters, also have the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines available for first and second doses and walk-ins are accepted.
