County Executive Gardner says this will help accelerate the vaccination process
Frederick, MD (KB) Frederick County Executive Jan Gardner announced the County has received an increase in local vaccine allocation this week. She spoke at a public information briefing on Tuesday. “Our local allocation of doses of vaccine increased to a record level this week, and this will allow us to accelerate our vaccination process,” Gardner said.
She said the local Health Department was originally scheduled to get 1,300 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, but instead received 1,800 doses for this week. She also said Frederick Health Hospital saw an increase this week from 600 doses to 1,000 doses.
On top of that, Gardner said the County received an unexpected supplemental vaccine allocation.
“All the counties in Maryland got an unexpected, supplemental allocation of vaccine, including more of the two-dose vaccines that we’ve been administering for the past ten weeks, as well as our initial batch of the newly-approved Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which requires only one dose,” she explained.
Gardner and other local elected officials have been pressing the state to provide more vaccine so that more people can be protected against the COVID-19 virus.
The County Executive said these combined amounts will let the county vaccinate more than 5,000 people with the first dose. The County’s staff is readjusting the clinic schedules in order to vaccinate more people.
Gardner cautioned that this may not continue in future weeks. “My only caution is we don’t know if this will continue — we know we will not get any more of Johnson and Johnson next week, but we are happy to get this supplemental allocation because it is a record week for us,” she stated.
The County Executive also announced that four Walgreens stores will be providing the COVID-19 vaccine this week. One location is in Brunswick, and three are in Frederick.