India Post News Service
CHICAGO: Prism Health Lab, a medical facility headed by an Indian Zul Kapadia beat five applicants to take over the Chicago city’s existing COVID vaccine points of dispensing and is expected to run a mass vaccination site soon
Chicago health officials awarded a $15 million contract to operate COVID vaccination sites to a local company, Prism Health Lab.Prism beat out five applicants to take over the city’s existing vaccine points of dispensing at the City Colleges, and is also expected to run a mass vaccination site with capacity to administer shots to between 3,000 and 5,000 people per day, as well as the option to run pop-up mobile sites. The contract will run until the end of 2021, with the option to renew for another year.
The contract is separate from a mass vaccination site planned at the United Center, which is being launched with help from two major U.S. government units, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Defense.
“We are very pleased to partner with Prism Health Lab to expand our vaccination distribution program in the weeks and months ahead as vaccine supply increases. They’re a Chicago company with significant experience operating COVID-19 mass testing sites and conducting vaccination campaigns,” Christina Anderson, Chicago Department of Public Health deputy commissioner and chief of operations for COVID response, said in a statement. “We are making good progress, with one in four Chicago residents 65 and older having received at least their first dose, but we have a ways to go, and Prism will help get us there.” See the latest COVID vaccination figures, and other metrics for the city and state, in the charts below.
Prism will still take orders from the city health department. The initial request for proposals, worth $20 million, included requirements to move a static site with a week’s notice, or to deploy a strike team within 48 hours. In total, the RFP said the winning bidder would be expected to run at least 17 vaccination sites daily—including one mass vaccination site, up to four static sites, two mobile sites and up to 10 strike teams.
The city will soon issue a second $5 million RFP, primarily to attract smaller, community-based partners, Anderson said. The contract will be for mobile sites and strike teams, which she noted does about one-tenth of the volume that a mass vaccination site would.
“A mass vaccination site is an enormous operation and it’s a lot to bite off,” Anderson said. “We got feedback that some of our smaller community-based partners didn’t feel they could swallow that whole scope. So that’s why we decided to put out a second one.
Chicago-based Prism, a minority-owned firm founded in 1987, won out, in part “because of its diversity in staffing, their operational experience with testing and their plans to conduct community-based recruitment to fill new staff positions,” as well as their existing community partnerships, the city release said.
Zul Kapadia, Prism’s president and CEO, said they will also focus on training in “vocational skills and build-out health care capacity within the communities that we are slated to serve. Together we will bring long-lasting equitable health care to the people of Chicago.”
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