Temple completes six-week White Hall vaccine clinic

Updated on 5/13 at 11:27 a.m.

Temple University vaccinated students, faculty and staff and Philadelphia residents Thursday during the final day of its six-week vaccine clinic at White Hall. 

Temple has administered 5,431 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, so far, wrote Mark Denys, director of Student Health Services, in an email to The Temple News. 

The university scheduled slightly less than 600 appointments at its vaccine clinic on May 6, The Temple News reported. 

Temple is currently discussing what types of testing and vaccination plans should be implemented during the summer and fall semesters, wrote Raymond Betzner, a spokesperson for the university, in an email to The Temple News. 

Temple received 1,100 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine each week from the city for the White Hall vaccine clinic, The Temple News reported. About half of the doses were intended for students, faculty and staff and the other half for city residents. 

The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses at least 21 days apart. Individuals who receive the Pfizer vaccine are not considered fully vaccinated until two weeks after receiving their second dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Students, faculty and staff completed the university’s vaccine interest form to schedule an appointment for their first dose at the White Hall clinic, while Philadelphia residents completed the city’s vaccine interest form, The Temple News reported. 

The university administered first doses of the vaccine to 2,754 students, faculty, staff and city residents in the first three weeks of the White Hall clinic’s operations, The Temple News reported. 

The university administered second doses of the vaccine to people during the White Hall clinic’s final three weeks of operation. Most of these recipients also received their first dose at White Hall, and Temple only vaccinated a small number of people who received their first dose elsewhere, The Temple News reported. 

Temple University Health System is also offering COVID-19 vaccines to all Pennsylvania residents at its campuses in Philadelphia, Bucks and Montgomery counties, The Temple News reported. 

Temple is encouraging students who have received the COVID-19 vaccine to upload their vaccine records to Student Health Services’ patient health portal so the university can begin to estimate how many Temple students have been vaccinated and how many may want vaccines in the future, Betzner wrote.

“Uploading information to the patient health portal is really important for this effort to be successful,” Betzner wrote. 

As of May 6, more than 545,000 Philadelphians have been fully vaccinated, The Temple News reported. 

People who have been fully vaccinated are able to gather together indoors without wearing masks or social distancing with other fully vaccinated people or unvaccinated people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

“The vaccination clinic has been a great success,” Betzner wrote. “We set out to vaccinate Temple faculty, staff and students, and residents of the city. That goal was achieved.”