Mass vaccination site set to open in Montgomery County
A mass vaccination site opens in Montgomery County on Wednesday, part of an ongoing effort to boost availability and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The site, operating on Montgomery College’s Germantown campus, will start in a pilot phase, doing between 500 and 700 vaccinations a day, a spokeswoman for the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services said.
The site will expand to up to 1,500 shots a day as a county site and then, after transitioning to a seven-day-a-week state site, it will double its daily capacity to 3,000 doses. A mas vaccination site will also open at the Timonium Fairgrounds in Baltimore County next week.
For its site, Montgomery County is partnering with Holy Cross Health and Holy Cross Germantown Hospital.
The Germantown campus is at 20200 Observation Drive and is accessible via RideOn Bus Route 55, which also stops at the Rockville and Shady Grove Metro stations on the Red Line.
Starting tomorrow, Ride On will be offering a FREE vaccination Shuttle that runs every 15 minutes from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Please see below for details. pic.twitter.com/tq3pA19L9E
— Ride On Bus (@RideOnMCT) March 30, 2021
Vaccinations will take place in the college’s Bioscience Education Center, the school said.
In contrast to the Six Flags site in Prince George’s County, the Germantown location is a walk-through site.
Gov. Larry Hogan unveiled plans for the new site and several others across the state at a news conference earlier this month, anticipating an increased vaccine supply from the federal government.
County Executive Mark Elrich said the Germantown location will be listed on Maryland’s preregistration site, opening it to residents of other counties as well starting next week.
“While I expect our county to get a lot of these vaccinations, some of these will be folks from other counties, just as Montgomery County residents have been going into Baltimore, the Eastern Shore and Prince George’s County for vaccines,” he said last week.
The site will take appointments from people who have preregistered on the county’s list as well as those who have preregistered on the state’s mass vaccination portal. People can also call 1-855-MD-GOVAX to be put on the state’s preregistration list.
The site opens as Maryland has moved to expand vaccine eligibility.
On Tuesday, Maryland entered Phase 2b of the vaccine rollout, which made Marylanders 16 and older with underlying medical conditions eligible for the shots. That’s in addition to all Marylanders 60 and older and some categories of essential workers.
Starting April 13, statewide eligibility expands to those 55 and older, as well as all essential workers in critical industries. All Marylanders over 16 will be eligible for the vaccines by April 27.
WTOP’s Alejandro Alvarez contributed to this report.
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