After delays in sending doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Montgomery County, Maryland, due to winter weather problems, vaccination appointments were about to be postponed until a new supply arrived on Monday afternoon.
After delays in sending doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Montgomery County, Maryland, due to winter weather problems, vaccination appointments were about to be postponed until a new supply arrived on Monday afternoon.
The Maryland Department of Health allocated 10,000 doses to the county last week – 4,500 first doses and 5,500 second doses – and 4,500 first doses for this week from the delayed shipment, a Department of Health and Human Services spokesman told the WTOP.
County officials said Monday morning in an online briefing that COVID-19 vaccination appointments scheduled last week could be rescheduled starting on Wednesday if delayed vaccine shipments were not delivered soon.
The county saw a reduction of about 5,000 vaccines for residents last week after the winter delayed vaccine shipments. Winter weather has delayed vaccine shipments across the DC area.
Dr. Raymond Crowel, Montgomery County’s director of health and human services, said people should drive safely to their Monday or Tuesday appointments and that, if they were late, vaccination officials would wait.
If you think you can’t reach your security appointment, he said, call 240-777-1755 to reschedule.
‘Chaotic’ system
County officials reiterated their call for Maryland to create a statewide vaccination site, as well as a regional vaccination site, which they said would help residents get vaccinated more quickly.
About 127,000 Montgomery residents received their first COVID-19 vaccine, and about 50,000 people are fully vaccinated, according to Crowel.
City Council President Tom Hucker said residents are “very frustrated and angry” at the “chaotic” system, adding: “We could vaccinate 10 times as many residents” if the Maryland Department of Health was not “sucking” doses for private providers and mass vaccination sites.
Crowel said a regional vaccination site would allow authorities to target doses to specific communities that cannot travel to state sites – there is currently one in Six Flags in Prince George County and two in Baltimore.
The county is currently working with partners, such as Connect-A-Ride, for taxi services to help residents without access to transportation to reach mass vaccination sites.
County Council Vice President Gabe Albornoz said, “It doesn’t make sense to walk around” that Maryland’s largest county does not have a mass vaccination site.
Crowel said the county was allocating doses to the communities that were hardest hit, which he said were mostly black and brown communities. The county is assigning doses based on postal codes and census tracking; he said that “it is not based on population, but on impact”.
Albornoz warned residents to be cautious about fraudulent vaccination sites. He said any program that requests payments or Social Security information is a red flag. Residents can contact 311 with any questions or concerns.
Crowel encouraged residents to continue taking the test, as the number of tests dropped from 50,000 a week to around 35,000 to 40,000 a week after the holiday season.
Crowel and Albornoz said that a central registry site would reduce sharing links for scheduling appointments, which sometimes go to people who should not be vaccinated yet.
Crowel said that on Saturday night, the links were still being shared and “a lot of work would be needed to undo this damage”.
Albornoz added: “People are coming to these destinations with a commitment”, which represents a challenge for the team to refuse people and creating “a commitment that has just been wasted”.
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