No matter where you look, the demand is incredibly high and the supply of vaccines is extremely limited.
Officials in Montgomery County, Maryland, are finding confusion about how to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in the country amid persistent supply and an increasing number of hospitals and pharmacies distributed with vaccine doses.
Although there are a number of ways to get a vaccine, there is not a single front door for residents of the country to go through to get in line for the first available appointment.
People who are eligible for the vaccine and want to make an appointment must register with the country in advance – for a lock at a clinic run by the province – or they must go to various websites run by different individual providers be, see if there are openings.
One thing to note: no matter where you look, the demand is incredibly large and the supply of vaccines is very limited.
‘A lot of finger pointing has been done, and the finger pointing is not helpful; it is not going to solve anything, ”district manager Marc Elrich said at a news conference on Wednesday in which he discussed the country’s vaccination efforts. ‘What I want people in the community to understand is that no one denies them the vaccine … People need to understand that if they can not get on the schedule today, it has nothing to do with someone they do not want to vaccinate … it’s just – they have no more slots. ”
Health Dep. prioritize age 75+
Overall, of the 18,825 first doses the state delivered to Montgomery County providers this week, the Department of Health received 5,500.
Although people aged 65 and over are eligible to be vaccinated according to the guidelines throughout the country, the health clinics in the province are only vaccinating people aged 75 and older.
If you are 75 years or older, you can pre-register for an appointment with the Department of Health, and the country will contact you if there is an open appointment. Earlier this week, more than 50,000 people aged 75 and over were pre-registered.
Elrich said the population of 75 years and older, who have the highest mortality rate due to the coronavirus, will retain the priority for provincial clinics for the short term.
Only after a significant number of people aged 75 and older have been vaccinated will the country start moving to the next stages, he said.
‘We try to make people realize that there must be an orderly progress; there is a reason why it was set that way, ‘Elrich said. “And I feel the frustration.”
If you are 65 years and older, which falls under Phase 1c of the state vaccination, you can also register with the country in advance, but officials warn that it will take a while to vaccinate the province’s 75+ population, so patience is required.
(Other people can also register on the province website if they meet certain criteria, such as whether they are teachers or other essential workers at the front. The province says that you only have to register again at this stage if you are under Phase 1b and 1c val..)
Elrich also announced Wednesday that eligible residents of the province and the public schools in Montgomery County can begin getting their vaccinations from Johns Hopkins Medicine. This is part of the effort to prepare for the reopening of schools.
Elrich said in a statement that Maryland gave Johns Hopkins Medicine 8,775 doses for Montgomery County, which will be used to accommodate residents of the country over the age of 65 who have been cared for by Johns Hopkins Medicine providers for the past two years. is, to vaccinate, as well as MCPS employees.
If there is your vaccination for your vaccination, the country will send you an email with a link to schedule an appointment. Land officials, however, are clear: do not share the appointment link with others. This is because anyone with the link can then make an appointment – even people who are not included in the province’s current priority groups.
The link to schedule an appointment comes directly from the email address “[email protected].”
Elrich said there have been cases where people in their twenties and thirties signed up to make vaccinations due to improper links. “They are taking vaccinations away from people who have the highest priorities in the state, and we need people not to do that,” he said.
A vaccination site run by the state government, previously used to plan other types of vaccinations, has been a ‘big problem’ because it enables people to make appointments even if they do not meet the criteria of the land not.
The state health secretary said Tuesday that there is a solution for the site.
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Other places to get vaccinated
There are several other locations that offer COVID-19 vaccines in Montgomery County.
Under a partnership with the state, four giant pharmacy locations in the province this week began offering vaccinations. Each pharmacy location will receive approximately 400 vaccine doses this week.
Appointments are scheduled online. However, a message on the Giant website said from Wednesday: ‘There are currently no COVID-19 vaccine appointments available. Come see again later. We appreciate your patience as we open as many appointments as possible. ”
Suburban Hospital, in partnership with Johns Hopkins University, has 8,875 doses of vaccine to distribute. The hospital offers vaccinations for patients 65 years and older, as well as vaccines for teachers in Montgomery County. There are three sites, including in Germantown, the Suburban campus in Bethesda and the Applied Physics Lab, which is actually in Howard County.
Adventist Healthcare offers vaccinations for healthcare professionals and 65-year-olds in three locations. As of Wednesday afternoon, no vaccine appointments were available.
Holy Cross Hospital prefers health workers and 75 and older. The next appointment slots will be announced on Thursday at 16:00. You can see more information on the hospital’s website.
Kaiser Permanente Gaithersburg received 1,950 doses. Kaiser Permanent patients aged 75 and over are requested to complete a questionnaire with their kp.org username and password.
More information is available on the hospital’s website.
Why officials should be careful
Land leaders have said they understand people are eager to be vaccinated, but insist on being careful.
“By registering too much and trying to saturate the system, you are making appointments that can be shared with other people,” said Dr. Montgomery County health officer Travis Gayles said, but he added: “We acknowledge the frustration.”
He said this is a function of the current insufficient stock of vaccine doses, but that provincial officials are asking residents not to sign up for multiple appointments if they can. ‘However, it is very anxious and there is a lot of desire. to get the vaccines in any way, shape or form, that they can. ”
If you register on several websites and make an appointment on one of them, you must “cancel the other opportunities or make it clear that you will not accept the other opportunity, so that you do not” intend to use it, “he said. Earl Stoddard, the county’s director of the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said.
There have already been a few exhibitions at country clinics. “And these are missed opportunities,” he added.
The country is also looking for part of its list of people pre-registered with the other providers.
“We hope other providers will accept from our pre-registration list, as this is obviously an easy way to find people interested in receiving the vaccine,” Stoddard said.