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Edith Blackwell is the owner of Edie’s Boutique in Chester, Pa. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)
After passage of a $1.9 trillion stimulus package, the first major legislative victory for President Joe Biden, he headed to one of the places that helped get him into office: southeastern Pennsylvania.
Specifically, he came to Chester to visit Smith Flooring, a Black-owned business with a unionized workforce that received Paycheck Protection Program loans earlier in the pandemic and will qualify for additional benefits under the newly passed federal stimulus, including a tax credit designed for employee retention.
“People hardest-hit are in minority communities,” Biden said during his visit to the majority-Black Delaware County city. “The rate at which they get COVID is higher, death rate is higher.”
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While FEMA’s vaccination site at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia opened for an eight-week run to much fanfare, the federal agency more quietly opened another site at the BB&T Pavilion in Camden for two weeks and is set to close on Friday. Appointments are still available, according to officials.
A line formed outside the entertainment venue on Monday before its 1 p.m. opening. Some in line said they needed to get vaccinated for their jobs or because they live with older relatives. But many said they did not hesitate to sign up for appointments.
“[I] just want to get back to normal,” said Luke Schermann, of Pennsauken.
Philly’s vaccine clinics now taking walk-ins
Philadelphia’s four city-run vaccination clinics are now allowing walk-ins, Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley announced Monday.
To be eligible, a vaccine seeker must fall in Philadelphia’s 1A or 1B category, and live in the clinic’s neighborhood. The city began allowing walk-ins this weekend, Farley said, after noticing that some of its appointment slots were going unclaimed.
A resident of Philadelphia’s Nicetown neighborhood receives the COVID-19 vaccine at Simon Gratz High School Mastery Charter at a mass community vaccination site on March 15, 2021. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)
“This is removing one additional barrier for people to get vaccinated,” Farley said at a press conference for the launch of a new vaccine clinic at Simon Gratz High School Mastery Charter in the Nicetown-Tioga neighborhood. “Setting up an appointment and making that appointment is not necessarily easy if you have a lot of other stresses on your
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Sabrina Boyd-SurkaMarch 11, 2021
March marks one year since the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the Philadelphia region, completely changing many aspects of our lives as we knew them and exposing deep racial and socioeconomic inequities.
Many of us have lost loved ones, jobs, or connections with others. But we’ve also found new ways of doing things, picked up hobbies, and learned more about ourselves.
WHYY News spoke to five Philly area residents about what they’ve lost and what they’ve found over the past year, and how they’re moving forward:
A musician without a stage
Amir “The Bul Bey” Richardson is a musician and multimedia creator living in Philadelphia. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)