Hundreds of Montco citizens volunteer to help with vaccine rollout
Calling it “incredible,” Montgomery County officials said hundreds of local citizens offered to volunteer to assist the county Office of Public Health with its coronavirus vaccine distribution program.
“The response has been incredible and I just want to thank all of the people that have volunteered,” said county Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, adding about 700 people answered the recent call for volunteers. “It’s just been amazing.”
Last month, county officials put out the call for medical and non-medical volunteers to serve through the Montgomery County Medical Reserve Corps for the county’s COVID-19 volunteer response. Officials welcomed medical personnel but also non-medical personnel because there are many tasks associated with the vaccine distribution that don’t require a medical background.
Officials stressed volunteers will be needed, particularly as the county opens additional vaccination sites when the supply of vaccine increases in the future. The county currently has two vaccination sites.
“Once we have a bigger supply, we’ve already been scouting out locations for third or fourth vaccination sites and we also could start to consider weekend hours. There are a lot of things that we could do to make this easier, more accessible and more convenient for people in Montgomery County once we have more vaccine,” Arkoosh explained.
Officials have not identified the potential areas being considered for additional vaccination sites.
County officials said the supply of COVID-19 vaccine continues to be extremely limited and they have urged residents to have patience as the vaccine rollout continues.
Last week, the Montgomery County Office of Public Health opened a vaccination clinic at Norristown High School to serve those who have appointments to receive their first dose of the vaccine.
Those receiving their second dose of the vaccine are being served at a second clinic hosted by the Montgomery County Community College campus in Whitpain.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses to achieve optimum protection.
Arkoosh said interested volunteers not yet contacted could be contacted to help in the future once the vaccination program expands.
“For those that we haven’t reached out to you yet to accept your wonderful offer of help, that’s why, because we’ve got about 700 new volunteers just in the last few weeks. We’re grateful that people have volunteered and we may get to you yet and take you up on that offer but right now I think we’re in pretty good shape,” said Arkoosh, who as a physician has been at the forefront of the county’s efforts to combat COVID-19 and provide citizens with the latest information regarding the outbreak.
Arkoosh previously said the county has had a “very robust” volunteer corps that has been helping since the pandemic began last March.
“They’ve been working at our testing sites in all kinds of ways,” Arkoosh said previously.
Officials said the purpose of the county Medical Reserve Corps is to improve the health and safety of county residents by establishing a group of medical and non-medical volunteers to support existing emergency medical personnel resources in the county. Additionally, the corps provides learning opportunities and skills development, disaster and emergency response opportunities and hands-on drills and exercises, officials said.
Officials added that participating in the corps can provide citizens with a sense of pride and accomplishment by serving their community.
For additional information about the Medical Reserve Corps county residents can visit www.montcopa. org/COVID-19 and click on the “County Vaccine Information Page” and “Frequently Asked Questions.”