Montgomery County will get extra COVID-19 vaccination help from Johns Hopkins Medicine, which this week will begin vaccinating eligible residents and Montgomery County Public School employees.
The partnership is part of an effort to help prepare for the reopening of public schools.
Johns Hopkins received 8,775 vaccine doses from the state that will be used for county residents who are older than age 65 and have received care from Johns Hopkins in the last two years. The doses will also be used for MCPS employees.
MCPS employees eligible for the vaccine will be identified by the school system and referred to Johns Hopkins for appointment scheduling, according to a press release sent Wednesday evening.
John Hopkins will contact people who meet the criteria through email when a vaccine appointment is available.
“We are excited about this partnership because working together, we can have a more effective vaccination strategy,” County Executive Marc Elrich said in the release. “With the vaccine in such limited supply, we need to work together to reach as many of the eligible populations as quickly as possible.”
The county is also working with other health care providers to expand the number of vaccines that can be made available.
“As we enter this newest vaccination phase in Maryland, we are pleased to answer the call from the state to vaccinate eligible individuals using vaccine doses allocated to residents of Montgomery County,” Kevin Sowers, president of Johns Hopkins Health System, said in the release.
The county government is currently vaccinating people eligible in Phase 1A and residents age 75 and older.
Preregistration, which allows eligible individuals to get into the county’s system and wait for an appointment link to be sent to them, is only open for people in Phases 1B and 1C for county-run clinics.
Briana Adhikusuma can be reached at briana.adhikusuma@moco360.media.
