Today Anne Arundel County Health Officer Nilesh Kalyanaraman, M.D., announced that the county will begin COVID-19 Vaccination Phase 1B on Tuesday, January 19.
The Phase 1B rollout initially will provide vaccine appointments for County residents age 75 and older. Phase 1A, which includes health care workers and first responders, will continue. To date, more than 15,000 county residents have been vaccinated with the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines, and the Department of Health has provided approximately 6,000 vaccines at county clinics.
“With high case rates, hospitalizations and deaths impacting our county, we need to provide more vaccines to save lives,” said Dr. Kalyanaraman. “Our oldest residents are at the highest risk. Black residents also have increased death rates compared to the population.”
“We are working closely with the Department of Health to facilitate the most vital recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Karrisa Gouin, director of the Anne Arundel County Department of Aging and Disabilities. “As we persevere through this phase, I encourage anyone age 75 or older to let us help them register by calling the COVID Care Warm Line at 410-222-3663 or Maryland Access Point Line at 410-222-4464 to register for the vaccine.” TTY users, please call via Maryland Relay 711.
Starting next week, people in any phase can pre-register to be alerted when their phase is up for vaccination. Seniors age 75 and older are encouraged to either pre-register online at https://aacounty.org/covidvax or by phone weekdays at 410-222-3663. Appointments will be available in Arnold, Glen Burnie and other sites around the county.
As Phase 1B rollout continues and a substantial number of 1B seniors have been vaccinated, child care providers, teachers and congregate living facility staff and residents will be vaccinated by appointments that will be announced later this month. To be notified when appointments are available for their priority group, people who live or work in Anne Arundel County can pre-register at https://aacounty.org/covidvax(Live at 5 p.m. Jan. 15)
“When Dr. Kalyanaraman called yesterday morning with a plan to move ahead into Phase 1B, I felt like a heavy weight was being removed from my chest,” said County Executive Steuart Pittman. “In recent days, our health department and our fire department worked through their exhaustion to get first responders and health care workers vaccinated in a safe and orderly manner, but all of us were frustrated that our vulnerable seniors were having to wait. Now we can save their lives. Let’s do this.”
Please be aware, that the Washington Post is reporting that the reserve inventory that the Federal Government said was ready to be shipped, did not exist. This will likely create a demand that exceeds supply for some time.
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Anne Arundel County COVID-19 Vaccination Facts – January 15, 2021
- To date more than 15,000 Anne Arundel County residents have been vaccinated in Phase 1a, which includes health care workers, first responders, nursing home residents and corrections staff and residents.
- To date, the Anne Arundel County Department of Health, with assistance from the County Fire Department, has administered more than 6,000 vaccinations. This is more than 40% of the vaccinations for the entire County.
- There are an estimated 40,000 people who are 75 and older in Anne Arundel County, and fewer than 1,000 have been vaccinated so far.
- Currently the Department of Health gets 5,000 vaccines a week so it will take one to two months to vaccinate everyone in this 75+ age group.
- The Department of Health has the staffing, volunteer and health care partnership capacity to vaccinate 5,000 people with a first dose and 5,000 people with a second dose for a total of 10,000 doses a day.
- For more vaccination data information, visit https://aahealth.org/covid-19-vaccine-data.
