CUMBERLAND â Although Allegany and Garrett counties have the highest COVID-19 case rates across Maryland, local hospitals didnât make the stateâs cut for facilities that will get the first available vaccine for the disease.
Whenever local hospitals do get a shipment, the vaccine wonât be mandatory for their workers.
Vaccine distribution
According to The Washington Post, the FDA early Friday said it âwill rapidly work towardâ authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on an emergency basis, and that decision was expected by Saturday.
The Maryland Hospital Association reported that 50,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine are set to be distributed to the state next week.
CUMBERLAND â New tools have recently been developed to help report COVID-19 data and find places to treat patients.
But as cases spin out of control, technology designed to track the disease has jammed, hospitals are increasingly becoming overloaded, and reports show Allegany and Garrett counties are headed toward a significantly dangerous zone.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Monday released data that shows how many inpatient and ICU beds are available at hospitals in counties across the country each week.
The University of Minnesotaâs Carlson School of Management in March launched a website to track and report daily hospitalizations from all 50 states.