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June 21, 2021

The Talbot Spy

The nonprofit e-newspaper for the Talbot County Community

News COVID-19 News Maryland News

Hogan Lifts Order Requiring Masks Outside; Limits on Outdoor Dining to End

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Citing progress in the state’s vaccination campaign and a new set of federal guidelines, Marylanders will no longer be required to wear masks outdoors, Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) announced on Wednesday.

Restrictions on outdoor dining and bar service are also being lifted.

Hogan said he made the decision to lift the outdoor mask order, which he imposed last spring, after weighing COVID-19 guidance issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday.

He also consulted with state and federal health experts, “all of whom agree that the risk of transmission outdoors is very low, especially for those who’ve been vaccinated.”

The governor said the state’s vaccine supply is now “even” with demand, meaning that everyone who wants a shot can get one.

“We have plenty,” he told reporters at a news conference outside Government House.

Residents who are “on the fence” should heed the advice of public health professionals, who have consistently called the vaccines safe and effective, the governor said.

“If you’re an individual who does not intend to get vaccinated, we want to make sure that you understand that you are still in danger of hospitalization and death,” Hogan said. “Unvaccinated people — including younger people — are continuing to be hospitalized.”

The lifting of Maryland’s outdoor mask mandate took effect immediately.

Restrictions on outdoor dining and bar service end on May 1.

Counties that wish to keep an outdoor mask order in place or retain limits on restaurants and bars can do so, the governor acknowledged. But he said the time has come to move to “the next phase” in the fight against the virus.

“Everybody whose been vaccinated can no longer continue to be held back because of the few who are refusing to,” he said.

Face coverings will continue to be required for “large ticketed venues,” when visiting any business, and on public transportation.

The state will open its 13th mass vaccination site on Friday at the Mall in Columbia, Hogan said. But with supplies increasing and demand leveling off, he said the state will eventually begin to phase out the high-volume locations.

“We’re probably not going to have every day of the week. We’re probably not going to have the same hours. We’ll gradually wind them down until they’re no longer needed,” he said.

Maryland continues to grow the list of pharmacies and doctors’ offices offering the vaccine, as well as no-appointment-necessary opportunities.

Ed Singer, the health officer in Carroll County, called Hogan’s move “a pretty reasonable step” given the data.

“We’ve known since the beginning of this pandemic that anything that we do outdoors is safer than things that we’re doing indoors,” he said. “Most of the outbreaks that we’ve seen… have mostly had to do with close contacts inside.”

Singer, head of the Maryland Association of County Health Officers, was speaking only in his capacity as the health chief in Carroll County.

“The whole issue with transmission outside is, I think, relatively low risk,” he said.

Montgomery County Executive Marc B. Elrich (D) called Hogan’s move premature. He noted that few counties in Maryland have crossed the 50% vaccination threshold.

“The CDC says if you’re outdoors and cannot socially distance, you need to wear a mask if you haven’t been vaccinated,” he said. “There’s no reason not to be cautious on that.”

Elrich said his team will “probably” recommend to the County Council, which serves as the Board of Health, to keep current restrictions in place, despite Hogan’s order.

“You should wear a mask if you’re outdoor dining and you’re talking to people and you’re walking around,” he said. “[Going mask-less] is not a safe thing to do.”

Montgomery’s case count stands at 8 for every 100,000 people. Elrich said he built a large-county spreadsheet using New York Times data and found that Montgomery is the only jurisdiction with more than 750,000 residents that has a case-count that low.

Baltimore County Executive Johnny A. Olszewski Jr. (D) announced Wednesday evening that his jurisdiction will align with the state.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott (D) said in a statement that he and his health team are reviewing the governor’s order.

“We would like to reiterate that the CDC’s guidance for not wearing a mask when outdoors under certain conditions specifically refers to fully vaccinated individuals, or those interacting with fully vaccinated individuals,” he wrote.

Howard County Executive Calvin Ball (D) said in a statement that he too is “reviewing” the governor’s actions.

Hogan said he will greet vice president Kamala Harris when she visits the state’s mass vaccination site at M&T Bank Stadium on Thursday. Her visit, on the day following the president’s address to Congress, is expected to highlight the administration’s efforts to fight the pandemic and provide relief to families and businesses.

“I think it was picked because it’s a perfect example of a very well-run vaccination center,” Hogan said. “It’s part of our equity effort in Baltimore City and we’re cranking out a lot of vaccinations there. … We’re going to be proud to show it off to her.”

Scott (D) will also greet the vice president, according to an aide.

By Bruce DePuyt

All Marylanders 16+ May Pre-register for COVID-19 Vaccine; Most Vulnerable Still Have Priority

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All Marylanders age 16 and up are now eligible to pre-register with the state for a COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) announced on Thursday. But he cautioned that the Department of Health will continue to prioritize older adults and those with health conditions when scheduling appointments.

The expansion of the state’s pre-registration system comes as the number of vaccination options continues to grow.

For the first time, eligible Maryland residents who lack an appointment will be able to get a vaccine beginning on Friday, when the existing mass-vaccination site in Salisbury adds a “walk-up” line.

The state’s Eastern Shore mass-vax site is located at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center.

“This is Easter weekend. It’s a big weekend for Ocean City,” Hogan said at a news conference. “If you haven’t gotten a vaccine and you want one, I would say get in your car [on Friday], drive to the beach, stop in Salisbury, get everybody vaccinated and then go to Ocean City and get some Thrasher’s french fries, stay for the weekend and go to an Easter brunch on Sunday morning.”

While Hogan encouraged Marylanders to pre-register, “our plan is to continue to add additional no-appointment lines at other mass-vaccination sites as well.”

The week of April 12, mass vaccination sites will open at Frederick Community College and at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.

The following week, a high-volume site will open at Ripken Stadium in Harford County; the week of April 26, a mass-vax location will open at the Mall in Columbia, in Howard County.

Hogan said the state is moving to vaccinate people as quickly as possible in part because of the rapid spread of COVID-19 variants.

He said 86% of the state’s 677 cases of variant infection are the B.1.1.7 strain, also known as the U.K. variant. Six others have also been detected.

“We are quite literally in a race between these variants and the vaccines,” he said.

Public health officials have said the variants are one reason that infection, positivity and hospitalization rates are on the rise in spite of an increase in vaccinations.

Some public health experts and political leaders have also blamed an easing on business activity and social interactions, but Hogan rejected the suggestion that his March 12 order to relax restrictions was responsible for pushing Maryland’s numbers up.

“We don’t think it had anything to do with re-openings,” he said. Hogan noted that Maryland — unlike many states — has retained its mask mandate.

‘Critics owe Redfield an apology’

Hogan also offered a vigorous defense of Dr. Robert Redfield, the former head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and an unpaid adviser to the governor, from what he said were “disgusting” and politically based attacks.

Last week Redfield, who served as head of the CDC under President Trump, told CNN it was his opinion that COVID-19 “escaped” from a lab in Wuhan, China. His comments triggered angry reactions from Democrats, including several members of the General Assembly and Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot (D), a candidate for governor.

Hogan said it was “outrageous and disgusting” for critics to tie Redfield’s discussion of virus theory to attacks on people of Asian-American descent. “They should probably apologize to Dr. Redfield.”

“He said nothing whatsoever that was inflammatory,” the governor added. “He’s one of the most educated experts on virology in the world.”

Hogan said it was “political nonsense [to] attack him for giving his professional opinion, which I thought he did a very good job of explaining.”

Local leaders ‘need to keep up,’ Hogan says

The governor signaled that he is weary of criticism from local elected officials and health officers regarding the state’s vaccination program and its efforts to reach vulnerable residents.

He told reporters that that “many” jurisdictions have yet to comply with a February request from the state “to produce their own equity plans.”

As a result, the governor said, county health officers have been ordered to submit their plans by Monday.

According to the state Health Department, only 11 counties — Anne Arundel, Caroline, Carroll, Garrett, Howard, Kent, Prince George’s, Frederick, Somerset, St. Mary’s and Wicomico — complied with the original request.

“The state Health Department will also be providing each county with a targeted list of underserved ZIP codes and list of specific congregant facilities in their jurisdictions, which we need them to concentrate their efforts on,” the governor said.

In response to a question, Hogan brushed aside criticism that he drops major announcements on local officials without notice, necessitating a needless scramble.

“Our Health Department talks to their health officers nearly every single day,” the governor said. “We inform them just as decisions are made. … We’re trying to get them to keep up.”

In a statement provided to Maryland Matters, Ed Singer, Carroll County’s health officer and president of the Maryland Association of County Health Officers, pushed back on the idea that the state sought formal plans from the counties or set a deadline for the local health departments to respond.

“Local health departments have been working to ensure equitable distribution in our jurisdictions since we began vaccinating our citizens in late December,” he said. “We work closely with our jurisdictional governments and local community partners to identify means to reach underserved populations. While we have been planning to ensure equitable distribution, no formal request for a specific jurisdictional plan was ever made of the health officers.”

Scott: Don’t become a ‘meme’

Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott (D) on Thursday announced a new pre-registration portal for city residents seeking the COVID-19 vaccine — and he beseeched residents to exercise caution over Easter weekend.

The city’s infection and positivity rates are up significantly from four weeks ago, with 29 cases for every 100,000 residents, higher than the state and national averages, the city’s Health Commissioner, Dr. Letitia Dzirasa, told reporters.

In addition, hospital ICU and acute-care units are approaching 90% capacity.

She said “this new surge is different,” because people aged 20-29 and 40-49 are the most impacted.

“Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X are contributing most to the case counts here in the city,” Dzirasa said.

City residents aged 70 and over represent the lowest rate of new infections, which “indicates that vaccines work,” the health commissioner added.

Scott urged residents — young people in particular — to wear masks and limit social interactions over the holiday weekend.

“You are not invincible,” he said. “You can end up on a ventilator just like your grandmother or your grandfather.”

The city on Thursday launched a new Microsoft-based pre-registration portal — covax.baltimorecity.gov — that the duo said offered better functionality than the state’s PrepMod system.

All city residents are now eligible to pre-register and should do so, the mayor said. And he urged them to resist “COVID fatigue.”

“This is not over,” the mayor said. “Don’t become a meme of these folks who are out at these parties with no mask or having events and ending up on someone’s Instagram feed because you were irresponsible.”

The state’s pre-registration site is covidvax.maryland.gov. People who wish to pre-register by phone can call 855-634-6829.

By Bruce DePuyt

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

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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

Talbot Officials Working to Improve COVID-19 Vaccination Process

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Talbot County’s first attempt to get a general population group signed up for COVID-19 vaccinations has had a few hiccups, but officials are working to improve the process.

On Monday, Maryland moved to Phase 1B in its vaccination plan, which allows residents 75 and older to be vaccinated.

Local health departments, including in Talbot County, are working to get that group signed up for vaccination clinics, with some information tied in to a state registration website over which local agencies have no control.

Talbot County’s first clinic for those 75 and up is set for Friday, Jan. 22, and the 150 slots available were filled within 12-20 minutes after about 200 people were emailed a registration link, health officials said.

“Our fix is to continue scheduling additional clinics that people can register in advance for, and to send out the signup link to a more targeted number of recipients,” Dr. Maria Maguire, the county’s acting health officer, said in a statement. “We also plan to keep pre-registrants informed with regular communications so they know the next steps they should do.

“As this was our first attempt to get a general population group signed up, a mistake was inadvertently made in that process,” Maguire said. “We were trying to get people signed up as soon as possible. Unfortunately, we continue to be extremely limited with our vaccine supply.”

As of 2013, Talbot County had more than 4,000 residents aged 75 and older. Population estimates in 2019 show the county has more than 11,000 residents who are 65 and up.

Maguire announced in a Jan. 14 press release that the health department was ready to move to Phase 1B following Gov. Larry Hogan’s announcement that he was accelerating Maryland’s COVID-19 vaccination plan.

In addition to residents 75 years of age and older, Phase 1B includes assisted living, group homes and other congregate care facilities, continuity of government officials, high risk incarcerated adults, and K-12 school staff.

Healthcare workers and first responders were in Phase 1A.

“We are only limited by the number of vaccinations supplied,” Maguire said Jan. 14. “We have the capacity to vaccinate everyone in Talbot County in a timely matter.”

Talbot County residents 75 years of age and older must pre-register for their COVID-19 vaccinations on the health department’s website at bit.ly/talbot-75. The health department will then respond to individuals to schedule vaccination clinic appointments.

The health department also is on the process of setting up a call center for residents to schedule vaccinations, with updates
announced through social media, on the TCHD and talbotcovid19.org webpages, and through public service announcements.

As of Tues., Jan. 12, the Talbot County Health Department had received 1,700 Moderna vaccinations and had administered 1,132 by Jan. 14. The health department requests vaccinations each week, and has been receiving on average 500 vaccinations per week.

In the email sent late Tuesday afternoon to residents who had pre-registered for a vaccination appointment, the health department noted: “Appointments are extremely limited so if no appointments are available when you try to sign up, please note we will be contacting you again when additional clinics are scheduled.”

For more information about the county’s vaccination plan, go to https://health.maryland.gov/talbotcounty/Pages/Covid-Info.aspx.

More Eligible for COVID-19 Vaccines by Monday, Hogan Says

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Teachers, child-care workers, people 75 and older, and members of various high-risk groups will become eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday, Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) announced.

In expanding from Phase 1A into Phase 1B of the state’s vaccination campaign, an additional 860,000 people will be allowed access to the vaccine, according to the Maryland Department of Health’s website.

But Hogan, speaking at a news conference Thursday evening, cautioned that Maryland is currently using more doses each day than it is receiving from the federal government — and unless the flow increases soon, the state will run out.

“On Monday, Jan. 18, eligible groups will be expanded statewide to include all Marylanders 75 and over, as well as anyone of any age, living in assisted living or independent living facilities, and developmental disabilities and behavioral health group homes,” he said.

In addition to K-12 teachers, support staff and child-care providers, Phase 1B includes high-risk incarcerated individuals and elected officials.

Under state activation of Part B of the federal government’s contract with CVS and Walgreens, residents of assisted living and all other long-term care facilities will be able to get vaccinated by those pharmacies, Hogan said.

The state is setting up a new website, covidvax.maryland.gov, where people can get information about vaccination opportunities in their communities and sign up. Vaccinations will be by appointment only.

As of Thursday, Maryland had vaccinated 2.95 of every 100 residents, a rate below neighboring Delaware (3.18%), Pennsylvania (3.01%), D.C. (4.68%) and West Virginia (6.54%), according to a Bloomberg tracking site.

Maryland has used approximately a third of the 547,000 doses it has received. Only ten states and Puerto Rico have made use of a smaller percentage of its on-hand supply.

To help boost the state’s efforts, Hogan announced a pilot program at 10 Wal-Marts and 22 Giant supermarkets to administer vaccines beginning on Jan. 25.

Hogan said the state’s rollout has been hampered by logistical hurdles and a refusal by some nursing home residents and others to get vaccinated. He said that no doses will go to waste.

He and Rona Kramer, Maryland’s Secretary of Aging, stressed that the vaccines have been thoroughly vetted and are safe and effective. People with older relatives or friends were urged to help them locate a vaccination clinic in their area.

“There is no need for anyone in a long-term care facility to leave the facility in order to obtain the vaccine,” she said. “The vaccines will come to you through the CVS or Walgreens’ vaccination teams.”

Although Maryland is preparing to expand into Phase 1B of its vaccination campaign, efforts to reach people in Phase 1A — health-care workers, first responders, nursing home residents and staff, and others deemed at risk — will continue, Hogan said.

The state will continue to assist in any way possible, he added, and he again urged residents to be patient.

“The number of people just in Phase 1 of our plan is 1.5 million people, and they need two doses, so that’s three million doses,” he said. “This is going to take a long time, a great deal of patience and a lot more vaccines.”

By Bruce DePuyt