Wicomico Civic Center will be site for Covid-19 mass vaccinations

Posted 3/2/21

The war against Covid-19 ramped up this week with the announcements that a mass vaccination site will open soon at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center and that 49,600 doses of the new Johnson & …

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Wicomico Civic Center will be site for Covid-19 mass vaccinations

Posted

The war against Covid-19 ramped up this week with the announcements that a mass vaccination site will open soon at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center and that 49,600 doses of the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine are heading to Maryland.

Gov. Larry Hogan on Tuesday announced that the first mass vaccination site on the Eastern Shore in Salisbury will open no later than March 18. The state will partner with TidalHealth to operate it, he said.

It will join other sites now open at Six Flags America, M&T Bank Stadium and the Baltimore Convention Center which can administer thousands of shots per day. Another state-run mass vaccination site will open this week in Southern Maryland and one in Western Maryland is set to open by the end of March, Hogan said.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was approved Saturday by the Food and Drug Administration, will be distributed to providers across Maryland this week, but the state has been warned not to expect any more doses until the week of March 18, the governor said.

Production of the vaccine, which requires just one shot, is expected to ramp up now that Johnson & Johnson has partnered with pharmaceutical company Merck to help produce it.

“Our plan is to get this vaccine into the community right away and right into arms so that we can continue increasing our vaccination rate,” Hogan said.

Vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech have been in use since December and require two doses administered three to four weeks apart.

More than 40 percent of Marylanders ages 65 and older have now received Covid-19 vaccines, Hogan said.

On Tuesday, Hogan also announced that Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been named the state’s senior advisor for public health and will help guide Maryland’s vaccination efforts and reopening plans.

Redfield encouraged Maryland residents to “embrace the vaccines with confidence” as shots in arms will help the state return to normal.

The Wicomico County Health Department is continuing regular vaccination clinics at the civic center. Since the week of Dec. 21, the department has held 33 clinics for people listed in Phases 1A, 1B and 1C. Last week, the clinics administered 1,539 shots.

To get an appointment, email Wicomico.COVIDvax@maryland.gov  and include your age or what phase you fall in and how you qualify for that phase. The Health Department will email a link to make an appointment when appointments are available. Check your email regularly because appointments fill up very fast

Additionally, several pharmacies in the Salisbury area, including Walgreen’s, Walmart and Sam’s Club, are administering the vaccine. Log on to covidvax.maryland.gov to find a provider by ZIP code, or call 211 for assistance. Vaccinations are by appointment only, and some providers may allow pre-registration.

Maryland is currently in Phase 1C which includes people ages 65 to 74, public health and safety workers not covered in Phase 1A, essential workers in lab services, food and agriculture production, manufacturing, the U.S. Postal Service, public transit and grocery stores.

Anyone in Phase 1B, which includes people 75 years and older, people in assisted living, group homes, high-risk incarcerated individuals and schoolteachers, are still eligible to sign up for vaccinations. 

Latest numbers 

As of Tuesday, Wicomico County has had 6,783 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 141 deaths. Health officials also reported that 16,596 county residents have received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine and 10,427 have gotten a second dose.

The patient count in Somerset is now 2,390 with 31 deaths. First doses of vaccine have gone to 3,113 residents and 1,965 have gotten second doses.

Additional cases have also been confirmed in Worcester County, which now reports 3,269 people as having the virus and 92 deaths. So far 11,010 people have gotten their first shots and 6,861 had a second dose.

Dorchester County counts 2,354 cases, 44 deaths, 4,590 first doses of vaccine and 2,840 second shots. There are 2,051 reported cases in Caroline County with 20 deaths, 5,016 first vaccinations and 3,096 second doses.

Statewide in Maryland, 383,170 cases have been confirmed, with 7,723 confirmed deaths and 182 probable deaths. The current hospitalization totals of people with the virus stands at 896. The number of people in intensive care is 232.

As of Tuesday, the state has administered more than 1.3 million doses of vaccine, with 898,235 first doses and 678,195 second doses.

Across Maryland, more than 3 million people have tested negative for the virus.

Nationally, there are now more than 28.6 million cases with 514,660 deaths.

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