ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A week after state Sen. Jim C. Rosapepe (D-Prince George’s County) pleaded for a data-driven, metrics-based plan to raise Prince George’s County's lagging vaccination numbers, Maryland’s top health official said ideas to achieve that goal, “are not cooked yet.”
Barely 16% of Prince George’s County received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine as of Monday, the lowest number recorded in Maryland.
Nearly 25% of neighboring Montgomery County’s population received a first dose, updated state health figures show. Maryland’s average first dose vaccination rate is 24%.
The frank exchange between Rosapepe and Acting Health Secretary Dennis R. Schrader unfolded against a backdrop of rising positivity rates across Maryland, and 40 days until all adults in the U.S. are eligible for vaccination under a Biden administration directive.
“We still need a plan, with metrics, about when we’re going to get Prince Georgians up to at least the average [vaccination] level in the state,” Rosapepe said. “When do you think we’re going to have that kind of plan?”
“We have two or three things in the pipeline that we’re not ready to commit to yet,” Schrader responded. “But every day, we’re doing new things in Prince George’s… We’ve got some other things in the pipeline that are not cooked yet.”
Schrader cited specific steps, ranging from a new vaccination clinic open at the First Baptist Church of Glenarden, to 2,100 appointments each week reserved for Prince Georgians at Olney’s Six Flags mass vaccination site.
But Schrader’s answers left Maryland senators visibly frustrated, as they looked for macro-solutions during their ninth weekly Zoom hearing on the state’s vaccine rollout.
The acting secretary’s explanations for low numbers in Prince George’s have shifted significantly over the past several weeks. Schrader initially blamed trust and vaccine hesitancy issues as root causes of the low vaccination rate in the county.
Rosapepe dismissed those explanations in late February and early March, describing frustrations from constituents who remained on waiting lists, and older residents still unsure of where to sign up for a shot.
Schrader this month cited “transportation and technology,” as the new overarching elements his team believes are holding county residents back.
During his latest comments Monday afternoon, Rosapepe said theories and anecdotes should not be substituted for plans based on data and benchmarks.
“We need scale, and we need scale rapidly,” Rosapepe offered. “We need a plan to get to scale.”
Maryland’s coronavirus seven-day positivity average is now at 4.37%. The figure is up from a 2021 low of 3.3% recorded on March 1.
The state currently ranks 31st in the nation for its percentage of COVID-19 vaccines administered. Virginia ranks 8th, according to the Becker’s Hospital Review tracking website.
On the subject of a future and much anticipated Montgomery County mass vaccination site, Schrader said an announcement was close, expected this week.
“We have a list of requests, we’ve done a feasibility analysis on each one of them, expecting some announcements to come out this week,” Schrader said, responding to Senate President Bill Ferguson’s (D-Baltimore City) question about a Montgomery County site.
“The announcements are close, there’s a number of requests that are in the pipeline, but I don’t want to get ahead of the process,” he said.