State, federal officials tour Ripken Stadium as Harford leaders continue push for a COVID mass vaccination site

Mar. 23—Representatives from federal and state agencies visited Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen over the weekend as Harford County officials continue to make a push to have a COVID-19 mass vaccination site stationed there.

Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency visited the stadium on Sunday, County Executive Barry Glassman said. He was told that the agencies would begin the formal process of mapping and evaluating what a mass vaccination site at Ripken Stadium could look like.

It would most likely be a drive-through vaccination clinic, Glassman said, and equipped to handle the 3,000 shots per-day the state expects of its mass vaccination sites.

"It does have a good regional location, and I think it has got to have that to draw the kind of numbers they are talking about," Glassman said.

Gov. Larry Hogan has scheduled a news conference for 2:30 p.m. Tuesday to make additional COVID-19 vaccine announcements, although the specifics of those announcements was unclear. Thursday, in announcing the expansion of vaccination eligibility in Maryland, Hogan said he would disclose locations of the next mass vaccination sites this week.

Both Glassman and Molly Mraz, a spokesperson for the Harford County Health Department, said they had not received notice regarding what the governor would speak about today or any clarity involving the county's request for a mass vaccination site at the stadium.

Maryland has five operational mass vaccination sites, with a sixth scheduled to open this week in Hagerstown. The other sites are located at the Baltimore Convention Center, M&T Bank Stadium, the Six Flags amusement park in Prince George's County, a minor league baseball stadium in Southern Maryland, and at the civic center in Salisbury on the Eastern Shore.

In early February, Glassman, County Health Officer Dr. David Bishai and County Council President Patrick Vincenti sent a letter to acting secretary of health Dennis R. Schrader, encouraging the state to use Ripken Stadium as a mass vaccination site.

The stadium's proximity to Interstate 95 and Route 40 would allow Marylanders easy access, county officials argued. Glassman has since spoken about it serving as a regional site for not just Harford but also Cecil, Baltimore and Kent counties.

Lawmakers representing Harford County also got on board, with Democrats MaryAnn Lisanti and Steve Johnson writing to Schraeder about using the stadium. Republican Sen. J. B. Jennings also recommended a mass vaccination clinic be opened in Harford County in a letter to Hogan, though he did not specify where.

Bishai has been critical of the state's vaccine allocations to local health departments, stating they are well-equipped to get more people vaccinated, but that the state is instead sending vaccine doses to the mass vaccination sites and private pharmacies.

Harford, he said, needed a mass vaccination site in order to increase the rate at which doses are delivered to county residents.

The state had been sending about 1,700 first doses to Harford each week, despite the local health department's requests for more to help get through its list of preregistered individuals sooner. Although that allocation rose to 1,900 first doses this week, according to the state, Bishai said that the Harford Health Department could vaccinate more than five times that amount with adequate supply.

"We have identified staff and facilities to deliver 10,000 doses per week," Bishai said in an email to The Aegis.

In the meantime, the health department will focus on getting older residents and those with underlying medical conditions vaccinated.

More than 21,000 people in the county's priority 1 category have preregistered with the department but remained unvaccinated as of late last week, Bishai said. About 1,400 of those individuals have medical conditions that put them at a higher risk of complications if they contract COVID-19.

All preregistered Harford residents over the age of 75 awaiting an appointment were expected to be scheduled by March 31, and the department would start scheduling appointments for people in the 1C group by the last week of the month, according to a post on the Harford health department's website. The 1C group includes those ages 65 to 74, essential workers and people under 65 with preexisting conditions such as cancer, kidney or liver disease, diabetes, heart conditions and others.

In the same post, the Harford health department encouraged residents to seek vaccines from other providers, noting the state is not going to significantly increase allocations to local health departments because it has chosen to offer more doses at mass vaccination sites, as well as private pharmacies.

Nearly 70,000 Harford County residents, or about 27% of the population, had been vaccinated as of Monday, according to data the Maryland Department of Health.

While the Harford health department remains the county's single-largest provider, having provided 25% of all first doses locally since January, the number of places Harford residents have obtained their shots has grown each week and now exceeds 200.