Officials in Montgomery County, Maryland, say they hope to start rolling out the coronavirus vaccine among people aged 75 and older under Phase 1b of the state’s vaccination plans, but demand is still rising far more than the meager supply of shots that the state provides.
Officials in Montgomery County, Maryland, say they hope to start rolling out the coronavirus vaccine among people aged 75 and older under Phase 1b of the state’s vaccination plans, but demand is still rising far more than the meager supply of shots that the state provides.
Since a pre-registration website for people aged 75 and older went live last Friday, more than 68,000 people have signed up to be alerted by the province when appointments for older adults begin.
Meanwhile, province officials said while the province still vaccinated thousands of health workers, the province received only 7,300 new first-dose coronavirus vaccines this week.
This is an impossible math problem that leads to frustration by provincial officials and residents eager to get a chance.
“If I look frustrated about this, then know that my true frustration is ten times more than what you are currently seeing,” said Dr. Travis Gayles, the country’s health official, said. “The system is not fit to do what we have to do.”
He estimated that more than 70,000 people in the province 75 and older are eligible for the coronavirus vaccine, and another 170,000 to 280,000 people over the age of 65.
‘And I get 7,000 doses a week to finish. The math does not add up, ‘Gayles said, adding:’ We work hard to get your doses. Trust me; we do not want to turn anyone away. We want to cover everyone right away so you can be protected. But we work with limited resources. ”
Gayles said he was “hopeful” that the country would be able to continue vaccinating people aged 75 and older like next week.
More Coronavirus News
Looking for more information? DC, Maryland and Virginia publish more data every day. Visit their official sites here: Virginia | Maryland | DC
State supply of doses limited
Overall, Maryland receives approximately 72,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine each week – a number that is likely to change at least over the next few weeks.
Of that number, only about half is paid out to the two dozen local health departments in Maryland so they can be distributed among the public, officials said.
Nevertheless, Governor Larry Hogan recently moved on to expand the admission requirements. Under these new guidelines, Marylanders 75 years and older could be vaccinated. Next week, from 25 January, people aged 65 to 74 will be eligible under state guidelines.
Montgomery County officials were clear: they do not have enough vaccine doses to get older adults vaccinated this week, even though other jurisdictions, such as Prince George’s County, have moved to it.
“He is therefore going to form a group that thinks they are immediately eligible for vaccination,” Elrich said of the governor’s announcement. ‘They is eligible, but he does not increase the amount of vaccine more than 7,000 new doses. So I can put you in a line you’ve not been to before. But that does not mean that you will be vaccinated faster, unless the number of vaccinations we receive actually increases. ”
What happened to Quince Orchard?
The huge demand and the extremely limited supply have led to some confusion, and even potential line-jump, for access to the vaccine.
Several older adults, who had apparently made appointments over the state system, were turned away from a vaccination region in the province on Thursday morning.
Officials said the people who were turned away are in the category of 75 years and older who are not yet vaccinated in the province due to the low supply.
Gayles said the health department is still investigating how they were able to make appointments in the first place, but it appears that email links were shared inappropriately.
The link to make appointments is through a state system designed for the administration of the flu vaccine, said Earl Stoddard, the director of the province’s Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security. Anyone with a link can make an appointment and the system does not have the functionality to screen people out automatically.
For now, links to make appointments are still limited to health workers who are vaccinated under Phase 1a.
“What’s happening is that people – healthcare providers, most likely – believe they are helping the community by sharing the link,” Stoddard said, adding: “They are actually doing a huge disservice to their community by sharing the link. by slowing down in the system. ”
The province is working to ensure that vaccinations are done fairly and equitably, “not based on the fact that you know if you have access to obtain a link,” Gayles said.
Officials stressed that people aged 75 and over who have pre-registered will receive communications directly from the province with a link to sign up for a vaccination if they are available.
“Some people just did what they thought because someone sent them a link,” Gales said. “But I will say this very clearly to anyone else who uses the links unscrupulously or tries to register ahead of time: we will not tolerate any behavior.”
Gayles said he sympathizes with state health officials responsible for distributing the relatively small number of vaccine doses.
“They have to thread a lot of needles due to a limited amount of federal government,” Gayles said.
But Stoddard said the “allocation is completely unequal,” given the total population of Montgomery County and the number of health workers who qualified for the vaccine in the first phase of vaccination.
Stoddard said the steps to expand suitability across the state, although supply has not increased, appear to be that the state says: “We are only going to throw 30% of the population against each other and let them compete for places,” “We just do not believe that this is a fair and equitable way of distributing vaccines.”