Montgomery County expects to receive an updated COVID-19 vaccine within the next week or so.
This week, the FDA authorized a new COVID-19 vaccine, and the CDC recommended it for those ages 6 months and older. The new shot protects against the XBB strain, according to Public Health Emergency Preparedness Manager Sean O’Donnell.
The county will not have a mass vaccination program. County Executive Marc Elrich said the vaccine will widely be available through pharmacies and doctors’ offices. He said county clinics will be more focused on uninsured individuals.
“So you’ll be able to treat this like going in for any other shot, you don’t stand in long, long lines for most of these things. And this will be carried out in a way that I think everybody will find more comfortable and normal,” Elrich said during a media briefing Wednesday.
Elrich encouraged residents to get vaccinations as soon as they are available, as the holiday season approaches and more socializing occurs.
Residents were advised to contact their healthcare provider or go to vaccines.gov to find locations for COVID-19 and flu shots. The website will list vaccines available at private providers and through a program that ensures adults without insurance coverage can get free COVID-19 vaccines.
O’Donnell said the county will update its website over coming days as officials get notification about when the county will have the vaccine and when clinics will open for uninsured populations.
Recently, officials have informed residents of a slight uptick in COVID-19 metrics. Hospital bed use by COVID-19 patients has gone up, O’Donnell said Wednesday. As of Monday, acute care bed usage increased by 17 patients since the previous week, and ICU bed usage increased by seven.
But, test positivity across the state has plateaued after rising for several weeks.
“It’s still a relatively higher percentage than what we saw earlier in the year, but at least it’s not continuing to increase,” O’Donnell said.
Overall emergency department volume is “slowly creeping up” as people need more care due to respiratory illness, he said.
