County launches drive-thru vaccination site

Mar. 6—Just past 5 p.m. Friday, the driver's door of Robert Mann's red SUV swung open and a health care provider approached to give him a coronavirus shot.

Within 10 minutes, Mann had checked in and gotten his first dose of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, all without having to leave his car. Then, he pulled into a parking spot for the mandatory 15-minute observation period before he was on his way.

"After getting registered, it went as smooth as ice," said the 64-year-old Mann, a Frederick resident who runs a home daycare center with his wife, Sownja.

Mann was the first person to roll through Frederick County's first COVID-19 drive-thru vaccination clinic at the Frederick Health Village off Monocacy Blvd.

The Frederick County Health Department arranged for 180 shots to be administered by appointment only to educators and childcare providers in what it described as a "soft launch" of its drive-thru vaccination site.

With vaccine supply beginning to ramp up, the health department is aiming to do another one next week by appointment only and hopes to conduct them regularly once there is enough vaccine.

It was able to use the Frederick Health village site through its strong partnership with Frederick Health Hospital. The infrastructure was already in place since that's where the hospital regularly conducts its drive-thru coronavirus testing.

"I think it's great," said County Executive Jan Gardner, who stopped by the site to lend her support. "We have been excited about this opportunity here. You know, it's kind of a ready-made drive-thru."

The health department had been working on launching a drive-thru vaccination site since the middle of February. It was able to proceed with the launch this week after getting a record-high shipment of vaccine first doses, including 400 of the recently improved, single-shot vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.

The drive-thru aspect helps people who need assistance walking or otherwise don't move as well since they don't have to leave their cars to get the shot.

For some, it was a simple as rolling down the window. For others, the door had to be opened to provide better access for the health-care provider.

"You want to make it easy as you can for people to get vaccinated," said Todd Johnson, the public health emergency planner for the health department. "Some people would over this model over another one. OK, we'll do it ... As you can see, it's a huge collaborative effort. We have not only the health department, but the sheriff's office and fire & rescue is here working with us, and other county staff is out here supporting the health department, too."

Johnson added, "This eliminates anyone having to be outside in a line or anything like that, just like the drive-thru testing site. A lot of places do this [drive-thru vaccination] for their annual flu clinics."

Mann had been trying for weeks to secure a vaccine appointment. He had taken his mother and mother-in-law to get their shots at sites run by the county health department.

"So, I had been through the process," he said.

But he was unable to secure one for himself despite his wife's persistence in searching for one.

On Thursday, he received a call from his wife, who had gone to Baltimore to get her first shot, that an appointment was available at the Frederick Health Village site.

When he learned it was a drive-thru clinic, "I was like, 'How are they going to do that,'" Mann said. "But it worked out smooth. It was very smooth."

Follow Greg Swatek on Twitter: @greg_swatek