Mobile Vaccinators Help Prince George's Speed Up Rollout

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — Mobile vaccination clinics now serve Prince George's, County Executive Angela Alsobrooks announced Thursday. This has helped the jurisdiction speed up its immunization rollout, though it is still the slowest county in Maryland.

The new units have inoculated more than 760 residents during its first two weeks of operation. So far, the crews have served:

• Cameron Grove Senior Facility
• First United Methodist Church of Hyattsville
• CASA
• A domestic violence shelter
• Homebound seniors

Speeding Up Rollout

In the week of Feb. 22, the county collected 8,400 first doses of the coronavirus vaccine. That was about double the usual weekly delivery, but it included several thousand make-up shots delayed in a snowstorm the week before. Regardless, Prince George's had its best immunization week yet, doling out nearly 8,000 shots.

Without the compensatory doses, the county was back down to a smaller allocation this week. It reigned in 4,800 combined first doses of the Pfizer and Moderna inoculations, as well as 1,400 doses of the recently-authorized Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Still, the county expects to break its weekly shot record once again.

"I am extremely proud of our Health Department and Office of Emergency Management, who
have helped us significantly ramp up our vaccine administration efforts," Alsobrooks said in a press release.

She added that the Prince George's County Health Department has the capacity to handle 2,000 immunizations per day. The county just doesn't have that supply yet, though the federal and state governments have promised bigger shipments soon.

"The truth of the matter is, we can’t administer vaccines we don’t have," the county executive noted. "We are prepared to quickly handle and administer additional supply of vaccines if they are
provided to us from the State."

Challenges Ahead

Prince George's County is closing its Sports & Learning vaccination clinic from March 13 through March 28 for scheduled maintenance at the facility. The site is set to reopen on March 29.

In the meantime, the county will open clinics at Kentland Community Center on March 8 and Cedar Heights Community Center on March 15. With the new additions, the county will not lose immunization capacity during the work at the Sports & Learning complex. Alsobrooks hopes to keep the interim clinics open beyond March, but that is not yet guaranteed.

Prince George's also unveiled a new system to make appointments. The process has already helped schedule tens of thousands of inoculations.

The county is still working through its backlog of preregistered residents. About 118,000 locals are still in line. Prince George's is technically in stage 1C of vaccination, but it is prioritizing those in phases 1A and 1B.

Alsobrooks mentioned that residents are still sharing their appointment sign-up links. These access codes should only be used by the people who originally received them. Distributing links helps people jump the line, and it disrupts the immunization rollout.

The county executive lastly announced new rental assistance for landlords and tenants. More information about qualifications and applications is available here.

To see when you'll be eligible for the inoculation, read Patch's explainer. Check out our how-to guide to learn how to sign up for the shot. Catch up on the latest coronavirus infection and vaccination metrics in Prince George's County by heading to our latest numbers update.

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Have a story idea? Please contact me at jacob.baumgart@patch.com with any pitches, tips or questions. Follow me on Twitter @JacobBaumgart and on Facebook @JacobBaumgartJournalist to stay up-to-date with the latest Anne Arundel County and Prince George's County news.