County workers receive their shots
Health care employees and first responders get COVID-19 vaccine
The day before Christmas, Hannah LaFrance and her mother were in line for the hottest item of the season: a vaccine for COVID-19.
As front-line medical workers, they have tested others for the virus during the past nine months. Thursday morning, the first doses of the Moderna vaccine were given to the medical staff in those risky positions. County Executive Steuart Pittman was not vaccinated butwas there to witness the first shots.
“I am so proud of the team here at the Anne Arundel County Department of Health, and particularly the folks who have been out there doing the testing everyday in the sun and the rain and the heat,” he said.
He said he mostly works from home and will be getting vaccinated in a later group. County Health Officer Nilesh Kalyanaraman said the county received its first 100 doses of the Moderna vaccine Thursday. About 20 people were vaccinated in Annapolis Thursday at the health department, and another 20 or so will be vaccinated at a testing site in Glen Burnie.
“I don’t know if they come from the North Pole. They come in these very cold boxes, so maybe they do,” Pittman said.
“The scientists are the elves this year; thank the scientists for creating this vaccination.”
It has been risky testing people every day for COVID-19, LaFrance said, not knowing if the person inside the vehicle has the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, but knowing there is a strong possibility.
LaFrance has type-1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease, so her vaccination will be a relief to her mom Janet LaFrance. Both typically work in county schools, and seeing their kids again is another motivation to get the vaccine.
“Wewant to get our kids back in school,” Janet LaFrance said.
Kalyanaraman said they would vaccinate first responders and health care workers and continue from there. He said they have received grants fromthe state that will help pay for the cost of distributing the vaccination, and the vaccinations have been provided by the federal government for free.
“We are planning to get at least 1,000 doses each week, butwe can certainly scale up or down depending on what we get,” he said.
The state has a webpage similar to its
COVID-19 dashboard that shows information about vaccine distribution in Maryland. Maryland is in phase 1A right now, distributing a very limited supply of vaccines to healthcare workers and people in long-term care facilities.
Workers will need to get a second shot of the vaccination in a few weeks. Others in the county have received the vaccine from Pfizer. Both Anne Arundel Medical Center and University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center have been inoculating workers. The state is prioritizing front-line healthcare workers and the elderly. Older residents are at the most risk of serious complications fromthe virus.
Annapolis uses the county’s health department. Mayor Gavin Buckley said vaccinating the public is among the highest priorities of the city. While they do not expect a shortfall of support from the federal government, the city is prepared to find the money for a mass inoculation campaign if needed.
While vaccine administration has begun in the county, now is not the time to let your guard down, Pittman said. The county’s case rate per 100,000 people, averaged over seven days, was 40.35 Thursday.
“We are just entering the final phase of this battle against the virus, and our rates are higher than they’ve ever been,” he said.