First Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine Arriving at Montgomery County Hospitals This Week

Adventist Health Care Shady Grove Medical Center and Adventist Health Care White Oak Medical Center are expected to receive 975 doses each of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine this week. Those first doses will be given to frontline healthcare workers with the greatest risk of exposure to the virus, according to Allisson Sambataro, public relations and marketing manager at the White Oak facility.

Mary Anderson, spokesperson for Montgomery County’s Health and Human Services Department, said the vaccines are sent by the federal government to area hospitals and do not pass through either the county or the state.

A spokesperson from Holy Cross, which has hospitals in Silver Spring and Germantown, said she doesn’t know when the vaccine will arrive, “but we are anxiously awaiting it.”

At Johns Hopkins Medicine, which operates Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, a spokesperson said “It is unclear at this time exactly how many doses Johns Hopkins Medicine will receive.”

Maryland Deputy Health Secretary Jinlene Chan said at a news conference last week that the state anticipates getting 50,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

Ultra-cold freezer to store the Pfizer COVID vaccine has arrived at the University of Maryland Medical Center. More freezers on the way to @umms hospitals across the state! https://t.co/CLz4qQVCPT

— University of Maryland Medical Center (@UMMC) December 11, 2020

About Suzanne Pollak

Suzanne is a freelance reporter with Montgomery Community Media. She has over 35 years professional experience writing for newspapers, magazines, non-profit newsletters and the web.

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