Montgomery, Maryland, county officials said they would expand eligibility for COVID-19 appointments at county clinics to people aged 60 and over, saying the new state rules forced their hand.
Montgomery County, Maryland officials said on Tuesday that they will expand eligibility for COVID-19 vaccine appointments at county clinics for people 60 and older starting on Tuesday – saying the new rules state agencies forced alignment with the Maryland vaccine schedule.
Dr. Travis Gayles, a county health officer, told Montgomery County Council members that a directive recently issued by the Maryland Department of Health mandates that all vaccine providers in the state, including county health departments, follow the state’s vaccine distribution schedule.
Previously, the county had moved more slowly than the state in expanding eligibility at county-run clinics, citing the limited number of doses the county receives each week and the need to prioritize the most vulnerable residents.
But the amended March 22 order from Maryland interim health secretary Dennis Schrader states that all Maryland residents who fall under the state’s current Phase 2a guidelines “will be eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines” and that ” political subdivisions must not make orders or rules to the contrary. ”
In the wake of this guideline, the county now allows residents aged 60 to 64 to pre-register for vaccine appointments on the county’s pre-registration website, Gayles said.
“We can put them in line to provide opportunities for them to be vaccinated,” Gayles said during a virtual board meeting on Tuesday. “Now, let’s be clear, however – as we said all the time – just because someone is eligible, it doesn’t mean that you will have an immediate appointment.”
Gayles said the move by the state – requiring local health departments to follow the state’s timetable – was made without consultation with local health officials and that no justification was provided.
Mike Ricci, spokesman for Governor Larry Hogan, said in an e-mail that the health secretary’s order “formalizes the state’s distribution plan to comply with the federal directive to expand eligibility and make all adults eligible by 1 May”.
Last week, the governor set a timetable under which all Maryland residents aged 16 and over would be eligible for the vaccine starting April 27, reaching the May 1 goal set by President Joe Biden in a speech at the White House to open access to COVID-19 vaccines for all adults by May 1.
Still, Gayles warned that, while eligibility at county clinics is expanding, the county health department is still not seeing a large enough increase in vaccine doses to be able to start giving injections into the arms of newly eligible.
“It will still be some time before you get an appointment,” he said.
This week, the county health department received 8,000 doses of the state’s vaccine, an increase of 6,600 last week and almost double the 4,500 weekly doses of several weeks earlier.
Overall, more than 25% of the county’s population received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, although many residents are going outside the county to get vaccinated, including through consultations at the theme park’s mass vaccination site Six Flags America, in nearby Prince George County.
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– Where’s the damn plan?
The move to align with the state’s timeline was welcomed by general council member Hans Riemer, who said it would reduce confusion over who is eligible for an injection.
But general council member Will Jawando, who was working on an abandoned county regulation that would have reduced eligibility requirements specifically for residents in high-risk zip codes, repressed the change, saying it would make it more difficult for the county to guarantee doses of vaccines are distributed equally, given the still limited supply of doses.
Requiring local health departments to follow the state’s expanded eligibility “has impaired our ability – to get a tool out of the toolbox – to reach the most vulnerable,” said Jawando. “I find it disgusting. I think it is doing politics with people’s lives. It’s shameful. “
Council member Craig Rice, who represents District 2 on the council, strongly criticized Governor Larry Hogan, suggesting that the governor did not sufficiently consult with local health officials in making pandemic decisions and lacked a solid plan for equality vaccines.
“It’s an abandonment of duty,” said Rice. “I hope people remember this, remember the fact that there are blacks and browns who are dying, there are blacks and browns who are being affected by this disease more than anyone else. And you can give a press conference, Governor Hogan, as much as you like, to talk about equity. Where’s the damn plan? Because I didn’t see that. “
County officials have sought to emphasize racial equity in the county’s vaccine implantation, including prioritizing residents in the areas most affected by COVID-19, identified as areas with high rates of coronavirus cases and high mortality rates.
Dr. Raymond Crowel, head of the county’s Department of Health and Human Services, said the county’s focus on priority postal codes has so far “led to real progress in … vaccinating people in our most affected communities” .
Still, disparities remain in the distribution of the vaccine. Although blacks represent 19% of the county’s population, they represent only 12% of those who received at least one dose of vaccine. Likewise, Latino residents represent 20% of the county’s population and only 10% of those who received a dose of vaccine in the county, according to the county’s vaccine panel.
“You can see that we still have a long way to go,” said Gayles.
Lawmakers and county officials also criticized the governor’s office for keeping local officials in the dark before making comprehensive announcements.
Hogan is due to announce the vaccine at 2:30 pm Tuesday, and Montgomery County officials said they had no idea what the governor would announce.
“It’s kind of unfortunate with the way the relationship is now. And, you know, we try to make it work as much as possible, ”said Dr. Earl Stoddard, director of the county’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. He said preparing for the governor’s announcement on Tuesday was “a kind of choice on his own adventure”.
Tracking cases in schools
About a week after elementary school students from kindergarten through third grade returned to classrooms under the Montgomery County Public Schools phased re-entry plan, Gayles, the county health officer, said that his office continues to track some cases of coronavirus involving school students.
Most of the incidents are unique cases, with no possible contacts at school, which Gayles said suggests that they were exposed to the coronavirus at home. However, there were two outbreaks related to school sports, he said.
An outbreak at Walt Whitman High School involved three football players, as well as two other players with possible contacts. At Winston Churchill High School, Gayles said that there were “a number of student athletes in various sports” who were exposed to a student at a private school.
The update on sports cases comes less than a week after county legislators loosened the rules on youth sports that were once considered “high risk”, including football.
Kate Ryan WTOPs contributed to this report.