Baltimore County Unveils Portal For Health Care Providers To Get Details On When They Can Get COVID-19 Vaccine
TOWSON, MD. (WJZ) - Baltimore County has just unveiled a portal where health care providers can sign-up to get details about when they will be able to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Dr. Gregory Wm. Branch, the Director Of Health and Human Services and Baltimore County's health officer says his department has gotten more than 10-thousand doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Branch says the focus is now on getting the shots to people who need it.
"We are excited," Dr. Branch said. "We have all those clinics prepared, and that was another thing, we couldn't start providing people with appointments until we actually got vaccines."
The state and local health departments have been criticized for not releasing more details on which health care workers would be able to get the vaccine first.
"Dentists have been under a lot of stress for a very long time. We are talking about 10 months into this," said Dr. Gary Bauman with Baltimore Center of Advanced Denstistry. Dr. Bauman said there was no detailed plan for dentists eventhough they face high exposure risks every time they take a patient.
An online petition demanded "Immediate COVID19 Vaccination for Dentists and Dental Staff Members in Maryland".
More than 700 people have signed.
Dr. Bauman said he was pleased to find out that Baltimore County now has a portal where healthcare workers can get details about when they will get the vaccine.
"None of us was asking to be first in line, none of us was climbing over someone else who deserves to be in line before us, we just wanted to know that there was someone looking after us," said Dr. Bauman.
Maryland is vaccinating frontline health care workers, residents at nursing homes and first responders. Dr. Branch says the goal is to administer the vaccines as soon as possible.
"We are actually going to be vaccinating all of our health care providers. All I ask is that people have patience as it relates to that,
and we will get to everyone sooner rather than later," says Dr. Branch.
It's important to remember that only people under phase 1A, which includes frontline health care workers, residents and staff at nursing homes, and first responders, will be eligible to be vaccinated at this time.
If citizens show up at sites to be vaccinated and they are not under that category, they may be turned away.