Some DMV health officials don’t believe all eligible adults can receive COVID-19 vaccine because of low supply
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. - We are just a few days out before President Joe Biden’s April 19th deadline to make sure all adults who are eligible can receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
But it doesn’t mean, that could be true for all of the DMV.
In Montogmery County, even as vaccinations continue especially thanks to mass vaccination sites like the one at Montgomery College in Germantown both county executive Marc Elrich and Dr. Travis Gayles said during a weekly COVID-19 briefing that vaccine supply is not meeting the demand.
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"We all would love to be able to provide vaccines to every living resident of our jurisdiction in the state and in the country, but we just simply don’t have the doses to be able to meet that demand right now," said Gayles.
"I am very frustrated when people continue to tell everybody that they’re eligible when there’s no real change in the supply of vaccine," said Elrich, following Gayles’ remark.
"No one is going to get vaccinated any faster wether you declare that everybody’s eligible on the 19th or on the 17th on the 21st. It all depends on doses and unless the supply of doses increases, the total number of people will get vaccinated at the exact same rate."
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In Prince George’s County, county executive, Angela Alsobrooks said during a Covid-19 update Thursday that family gatherings continue to be the biggest source of Covid in the county.
But she added that the county is seeing its supply of vaccines growing, even with the Johnson and Johnson shot.
Earlier this week, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for a pause in the use of the vaccine in the wake of reports of a small number of rare blood clots in recipients. Though it is unclear whether the vaccine was responsible for the clots, injections came to a sudden halt across the country.
County health officials said that there are enough Pfizer and Moderna vaccines available to accommodate scheduled appointments.
Just across the river in Fairfax County they health officials said they will be ready on Sunday to make sure people who are 16 or older will be eligible to directly schedule a vaccine appointment.
However, they have said they are changes in how a resident registers, meaning —-the county’s preregistration system will be retired but the state registration system will remain open after April 18. People are also being encouraged to register through vaccinefinder.com.
As far as walk up clinics are concerned, in Prince George’s county, officials said they are working on plans to consider walk-up appointments to make sure they can target their demographics.
Statewide, walk-ups have resumed at the Hagerstown and Wicomico mass vaccination sites, in addition to
The M&T Bank Stadium mass vaccination site in Baltimore.
There are ten walk-up sites in the District where seniors can go. There are some walk-ups in Virginia but none in the immediate area.