Vulnerable Populations In Maryland To Get COVID-19 Vaccine

MARYLAND — Older adults and those living in congregate living situations will receive the COVID-19 vaccine through new channels to make it easier for them to access the shot.

Through their communities and health care providers, older people will be able to get the vaccine, according to the Maryland Department of Health. Primary care facilities, Rite Aid, Giant and MedStar are among those partnering with the state to increase availability of the vaccine.

“Vaccinating aging and vulnerable Marylanders in Phase 1 is one of our highest priorities," Acting Maryland Health Secretary Dennis R. Schrader said in a statement. “We plan to continue delivering vaccines directly to older and vulnerable adults until we have made a vaccine available to all members of these populations who want one.”

Primary Care Doses

Across the state, 17 primary care practices will get 100 doses of the Moderna vaccine to provide to their aging patients. The program will allow the state to pilot the idea of using primary care practices as points of delivery for older Marylanders and to validate the providers’ ability to more broadly distribute vaccines.

Officials say the plan is to expand to dozens more primary care practices around the state.

Marylanders With Disabilities

Rite Aid will provide 600 doses of the vaccine to residents with developmental disabilities in four jurisdictions this week and next week — Baltimore City as well as Baltimore, Harford and Prince George’s counties.

This program, which is a partnership with the Maryland Department of Health and Maryland Department of Disabilities, will increase to 800 doses a week in the next few weeks and expand its reach to additional regions.

500 Independent, Assisted Living Facilities

About 2,200 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been delivered in the past three weeks to nearly 100 independent and assisted living facilities around Maryland through an arrangement among Giant, MedStar Health, the Maryland Department of Aging and the Maryland Department of Health.

These facilities were not covered by the federal Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program, which only handles long-term care facilities.

On-site vaccination clinics are planned at nearly 400 other facilities in the coming weeks, officials said.

More To Come

More programs to get vaccines to older adults are in the pipeline and should start by early April.

“We want to meet vulnerable Marylanders where they are," Acting Maryland Health Secretary Dennis R. Schrader said in a statement Monday, March 15

"As our supply of vaccines provided by the federal government begins to increase," Schrader said, "we will find the most efficient ways to ensure that they reach the arms of those who need them the most.”