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June 19, 2025

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News Maryland News

Md.’s Vaccine Network Able to Do 500,000+ Doses Per Week, Acting Health Secretary Says

March 23, 2021 by Maryland Matters

Maryland has the ability to administer more than half a million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine per week — and could get even more shots into arms when the state’s allotment increases sufficiently, the state’s acting heath secretary told legislators on Monday.

A vaccination program running at that clip would significantly alter the state’s efforts to protect residents from the virus, to the point where clinics would be actively searching for arms to put shots into.

“When those doses come, we’re ready to go,” Dennis R. Schrader told the state Senate’s Vaccine Work Group. “That’s why we’ve been building the infrastructure.”

The state expects to have access to 300,000 doses by the end of the month, with more coming in April.

Schrader said that if doses arrive in the numbers the state is expecting, hospitals will be able to administer 135,000 per week, local health departments will be able to do another 115,000, and mass-vaccination sites will be capable of doing more than 100,000.

Retail pharmacies could handle a minimum of 50,000 (and most likely “a lot more”), and primary-care physicians between 35,000 and 50,000, he added.

The secretary said having capacity at that level would not only be able to respond to the public’s demand for the vaccine, “we’re going to have to go in and pull people” from the community through various forms of outreach.

Maryland has four high-volume sites operating now and a fifth is scheduled to open in Hagerstown on Thursday. Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) is expected to approve a Montgomery County site — and perhaps others — this week.

“The announcements are close,” Schrader said.

It took the state 67 days to administer its first 1 million doses, but just 27 days to administer the second million, the health chief said. On Friday, the state hit a record — 57,550 shots.

Hogan announced last week that Maryland will quickly expand vaccine eligibility in the coming weeks, to the point where all residents are eligible by April 27.

Although older residents were prioritized in the early weeks of the distribution campaign, Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) said “it’s the final 30% of 70-year-olds and 80-year-olds that I’m worried about,” a reference to the seniors who have yet to get vaccinated.

Schrader said the state’s new engagement with primary-care physicians will be helpful in getting doses to other “hard-to-reach” populations that haven’t been vaccinated yet.

“I’m also concerned about the 30% that’s left in the 65-and-older population,” the secretary said. “The community doctors are the pathway to getting a lot of these folks vaccinated. They’re going to have head-of-the-line privileges” in the state’s new pre-registration system.

Despite high-profile efforts by Hogan and his team to boost the vaccination rate in Prince George’s County, it remains the lowest in the state. Approximately 16% of county residents have been fully vaccinated, roughly half the percentage in Talbot County, the state’s leader.

Schrader said there are “two or three things in the pipeline” to boost the numbers in Prince George’s, but he said they “are not cooked yet.”

On Monday the state Department of Health announced an increase in the number of doses going to local health departments. Local health officials have boasted for weeks of their ability to reach people of color, people with existing health conditions, workers who have frequent contact with the public and those who live in close proximity to others.

Under the new formula, Montgomery will receive 8,000 doses per week, Prince George’s 6,900 and Baltimore County 6,300.

By Bruce DePuyt

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Maryland News Tagged With: coronavirus, covid, Dennis R. Schrader, doses, Gov. Larry Hogan, Maryland, vaccines

Lawmakers Question Expansion of Vaccine Eligibility While Doses are Scarce

January 26, 2021 by Maryland Matters

Demand for COVID-19 vaccines in Maryland is quickly outpacing the state’s supply of vaccines, causing confusion for residents and prompting tough questions from lawmakers at the first meeting of the Senate Vaccine Oversight Workgroup.

The state is only getting about 72,000 doses a week on average from the federal government, Acting Secretary of Health Dennis R. Schrader told lawmakers on Monday.

And the state is slower than most in getting those vaccines to residents: According to data from the Centers for Disease Control, Michael Powell of the Department of Legislative Services said at the meeting, Maryland ranks 40th compared to all other states and the District of Columbia in terms of vaccine doses administered per state population.

More than 300,000 Marylanders, around 5.08% of the state’s population, have received their first vaccine dose so far – but more than half of the vaccine doses allocated to Maryland haven’t been used yet, Powell said. He noted there are some discrepancies in data, and state and federal data on exactly how many vaccine doses have been allocated to Maryland varies.

Despite the rocky start to Maryland’s vaccine rollout, state officials have pushed forward with vaccine eligibility. On Monday, the state moved into Phase 1C of the program, which includes adults aged 65 and older, Postal Service employees and manufacturing and agriculture employees. All told, that means more than 2 million Marylanders are now eligible for the vaccine. But Maryland’s county health departments haven’t been able to expand vaccination to everyone in Phase 1A, 1B and 1C because they’ve received a fraction of the number of vaccine doses needed for those groups.

In Montgomery County, for example, there are more than 164,000 people eligible under the state’s guidance, but only 26,900 doses have been received so far, officials said Monday.

As to why the state expanded vaccine eligibility even while vaccines are in short supply, Schrader said the federal government “forced our hand” in demanding that people aged 65 and older be eligible for the vaccine.

“They insisted that 65 and older be put into the mix,” Schrader said. “That really was unfortunate.”

Sen. Clarence K. Lam (D-Howard and Baltimore County) said states have the final authority to decide how vaccines are rolled out, and pressed Schrader on whether the state was really forced to expand the vaccination program.

“I try not to blame anybody,” Schrader said. “This is a very hard problem, to be honest with you. We’re all in this together and tough decisions are going to have to be made.”

After the meeting, Lam told Maryland Matters that the state offered “a lot of contradictory information” on vaccines.

Lam noted that Schrader said the state is in the process of building infrastructure to cope with a much larger vaccine demand later this year, but also said the state plans on using already-existing pharmacies at stores like Walmart and Giant to distribute vaccines.

“One one hand they’re talking about building infrastructure,” Lam said. “But it sounds like the infrastructure is really relying on existing entities.”

Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) thought the biggest takeaway from the meeting was that the state is focused on a “decentralized” plan for vaccine distribution, preferring to work with health providers rather than set up mass vaccination sites run by the government.

Schrader said the state wants to have as many options as possible for expanding the vaccination rollout in the coming months. He said the state is evaluating which pharmacies, health departments and hospitals are vaccinating Marylanders the fastest, so they can be prioritized over slower organizations.

“We want to have more than one or two channels in a county … so that we’ve got options in case one group isn’t working as well as the other,” he told lawmakers.

And, with Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) urging schools to return to hybrid learning by March 1, Schrader conceded that not every teacher will be vaccinated by the time they return to in-person work. The state is still prioritizing older adults, he said, and getting a vaccine will be “competitive” even for those eligible.

“It would not be reasonable to say every educator’s going to have a shot before school’s open, depending on when the schools want to open,” he said.

Hogan is planning to hold a State House press conference about vaccine distribution at 2 p.m. today.

The Senate workgroup was established earlier this month as lawmakers expressed dissatisfaction with the state’s vaccination rollout. Ferguson vowed that Hogan’s nomination of Schrader to permanently fill the health secretary role, which is subject to Senate confirmation, will not move forward until the state shows “progress” in its vaccination push. 

Local health departments struggle with low supply, high demand

Earlier Monday, Montgomery County leaders were intensely critical of Hogan’s vaccination strategy, charging that the governor hasn’t included local governments in his planning process.

At that briefing, Montgomery County Council President Tom Hucker (D) and Vice President Gabriel Albornoz (D) highlighted the challenges long-underfunded local health departments are facing amid the state’s vaccine rollout.

They said Montgomery County has been getting a low and often inconsistent number of vaccines in state allocations.

“We’re committed to getting everybody vaccinated as quickly as we can,” Montgomery County’s top health official, Dr. Travis Gayles, said at a Monday morning media briefing. “However, we have an inadequate supply.”

Hucker said he, like Hogan, wants to see students back in schools as soon as possible – but added that the short supply of vaccines makes the March 1 goal difficult.

“It’s a supply and demand problem,” Hucker said. “It is simple math.”

He said smaller, more rural counties are getting a larger allotment of vaccines proportional to their populations than some of Maryland’s larger jurisdictions like Montgomery County.

Lam said the state’s decision to open wider eligibility for vaccines “set up the local health departments and hospitals for failure,” because many residents won’t be aware that there aren’t enough vaccines to keep up with demand.

“I think we have a long way to go,” Lam said. “It’s really disappointing that we’re in the circumstances that we are in now.”

Albornoz said the county recently held a town hall to answer residents’ questions about vaccines. No one from the Maryland Department of Health appeared on that virtual town hall, he said, despite the county’s invitation.

“We are not in a position to respond to many of the questions that have been raised,” Albornoz said. He noted that, like local governments, the state also struggles with a low supply from the federal government.

By Bennett Leckrone

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Maryland News Tagged With: availability, coronavirus, Covid-19, doses, vaccination, vaccine

Hogan Enlists Guard Units, Retired Health Professionals to Help Vaccinate Marylanders

January 6, 2021 by Maryland Matters

Fighting off complaints that Maryland has been slow to act, Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) pledged on Tuesday that the state will use “every single resource” it has to get as many people vaccinated against COVID-19 as quickly as possible.

But he urged residents to be patient as the state, local health departments, hospitals and chain pharmacies undertake a massive vaccine distribution effort that he called “the greatest peacetime undertaking in American history.”

According to a Bloomberg tracker, Maryland has used 26.5% of the doses it has received, putting it firmly in the middle of the pack. (South Dakota has used 64.5% of its supply; Kansas just 15.3%.)

Speaking to reporters, Hogan said under-reporting by hospitals and national drug store chains CVS and Walgreens make the numbers appear worse than they are. The companies have federal contracts to vaccinate nursing home residents and staff.

Hogan said he spoke with the CEOs of both firms on Tuesday and urged them to work more quickly — and he issued an executive order requiring the companies to report vaccinations within 24 hours. Under their contract with the federal Department of Health and Human Services, they have 72 hours.

In the first three weeks of the state’s vaccination campaign, 270,150 doses have been distributed to hospitals, local health departments and pharmacies, Hogan said, representing 98.7% of Maryland’s allocation from the federal government.

Like other states, Maryland is in Phase 1A of its rollout, targeting local first-responders, health care workers, corrections personnel, judiciary staff and vulnerable populations.

The governor said “some hospitals are doing extremely well” while others are “still just ramping up.” One facility has used just 16% of its vaccines, while another has already used two-thirds.

“While none of us are thrilled with the pace of this rollout over the first couple of weeks, I can assure you that it is improving every day,” Hogan said. On Monday, 11,553 people were vaccinated, the most for a single day, bringing the total to 76,916.

Under a new order from the state Department of Health, any provider that hasn’t administered at least 75% of their first-dose allocation may have future shipments reduced and sent elsewhere — “until they can prove their ability to meet capacity requirements,” the governor said.

“I want to assure the people of Maryland that we are going to leverage every single resource at our disposal to get more shots into more arms as quickly as we possibly can, in a safe and orderly way.”

Beginning on Wednesday, the Maryland National Guard will dispatch emergency support teams to assist local health departments with their vaccination clinics. The Guard will assist with administering vaccines and provide logistical support.

Hogan also announced that 700 volunteers — many of them recently retired medical professionals — will begin helping local health departments.

The governor said the state expects to move from Phase 1A to 1B at the end of January— and he announced that 1B has been expanded to include all Marylanders over the age of 75, teachers, child care and education staff, special needs group homes, high-risk inmates, people with developmental disabilities and “continuity of government.”

Phases 1A and 1B constitute an estimated 1.36 million Marylanders.

The new Phase 1C now includes all Marylanders age 65 to 74 as well as people who work in grocery stores, public transit operations, agriculture production and manufacturing. Based on the current pace of allocation, the state expects to enter Phase 1C, a group estimated at 772,000 residents, by early March.

Although the Maryland Democratic Party criticized the state’s vaccine rollout in a press release this week, Hogan struck a largely positive tone throughout his remarks, saying the state is looking to help speed the vaccination campaign, not place blame.

He dismissed suggestions that local health departments have received conflicting guidance from the state. “That’s completely not true,” he said.

Local officials “can whine about it or they can get to work and do their job.”

Hogan said five counties — Howard, Montgomery, St. Mary’s, Calvert and Caroline — had done an exemplary job standing up vaccination programs.

Baltimore City and Prince George’s County are “very far behind” in their vaccination efforts, “but we’re going to try to provide ‘em every bit of help we can. If we have to send in the National Guard to help them, we’re going to be there.”

By Bruce DePuyt

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Maryland News Tagged With: coronavirus, Covid-19, doses, Gov. Larry Hogan, Maryland, vaccinations, vaccine

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