Howard County Educators Begin Getting First Dose Of COVID-19 Vaccine, But Some Worry Process Won't Be Fast Enough
ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (WJZ) -- Howard County's health department is rolling out COVID-19 vaccinations for educators to speed up the return to school, but there are not enough doses to go around.
Troy Todd is an elementary school principal at Hanover Hills. He was among the first group of Howard County Public School administrators and staff to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
"We're excited overall to get back to a sense of normalcy," Todd said.
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Todd has been going to school regularly. Up until now, there haven't been many students in class, but Gov. Larry Hogan is urging school districts to start reopening on March 1.
It's a decision that has many teachers on edge.
"And that's their right and prerogative to wonder how is this all going to play out with these timelines that we're looking at," Todd said.
Colleen Morris with the teachers' union said some teachers are slated to return as early as February 22, well before they have a second or even first dose of the vaccine.
"There is no way that all educators will be immunized before we go back unless the board changes the timeline," Morris said.
Howard Community College opened Thursday exclusively to the public school system to show them how to operate their own clinics.
"This is like a training so that they can understand how we set up, how we best flow for people to go through the system," Lisa DeHernandez, with the Howard County Health Department, said.
Debbie Atticks works with maintenance at Howard County Public Schools. She said armed with the vaccine, she's ready to welcome students back to the classroom.
"That's why we're all doing it," she said.
Another challenge in Howard County is that the health department only received 2,000 doses of the vaccine this week, which is 56% below what they received the previous.
For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.