Hundreds of non-Prince George's residents cross county lines to get vaccinated
LANDOVER, Md. (FOX 5 DC) - More issues with the vaccine rollout in Prince George’s County. People are crossing county lines to get vaccinated. It’s causing long lines and frustration among people who live in the county.
"I assume there’s some issues of coordination between our elected leaders from across the county and state and that’s unacceptable," David Murray a Prince George’s County Board of Education member said after waiting hours to get his vaccine Friday.
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On Thursday, 859 people were vaccinated at the Sports and Learning Complex. Only 55 percent were county residents. One-third of those non-county residents were Phase 1A, which does allow people to get vaccinated in the county they work, but the rest had no ties to Prince George’s County. Among seniors, 249 people, ages 75 and older, were vaccinated but only two-thirds of them were Prince George’s County residents.
"It really becomes an issue of privilege," Murray said.
County officials say the issue comes from the state site, which allowed people to make appointments in counties they did not live or work.
In a statement, the county said, "Our health department continues to look days ahead at appointments and removed those who are not in our priority 1A and 1B categories, replacing them with vulnerable County residents and those who work in the County. This process has freed up several hundred new appointments per day, and our health department has extended appointment links to qualified individuals. Our health department closed the ability for individuals to access county clinics through the state vaccination website, at the beginning of this week, and has continued to review and replace people who registered and are not in 1A or 1B. The county will continue to schedule and replace appointments through the pre-registration information exclusively."
Another issue is long wait times. People FOX 5 spoke to say the county was way behind schedule with vaccination appointments. The line stretched long outside the Sports and Learning Complex for much of the day Friday.
"I got here at 1:20. My appointment was at 2 and they were still calling people at 12 o clock," Jehlisa Hillocks, a social worker said.
"I was waiting in line for a long period of time in the cold and I felt bad for some older folks who were out here waiting in that line," Murray said.
The county says it plans to open another mass vaccination site as early as next week.
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