Politics & Government

'We're Not Vaccinated Enough' In Harford County For Herd Immunity

​"I'm just warning people that it's not over," Harford County Health Officer Dr. David Bishai said of the coronavirus pandemic.

"We're going to get the phone calls about outbreaks, and we're going to find the need to put people in quarantine," Harford County Health Officer Dr. David Bishai said, if people do not get vaccinated.
"We're going to get the phone calls about outbreaks, and we're going to find the need to put people in quarantine," Harford County Health Officer Dr. David Bishai said, if people do not get vaccinated. (Scott Anderson/Patch)

HARFORD COUNTY, MD — Outbreaks of the coronavirus are still going to happen in Harford County, due to a plateau in vaccination rates, according to the county's health officer.

"Vaccine coverage is now 49 percent of the entire population, well short of anywhere close to herd immunity," Harford County Health Officer Dr. David Bishai said.

"Today at Ripken, they had a great day," Bishai reported at Tuesday's County Council meeting. Including 241 children ages 12 to 15, he said 1,320 people were given the Pfizer vaccine Tuesday at the stadium in Aberdeen, which is home to Harford County's only mass vaccination site.

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"I'm really happy" with the Ripken Stadium usage, Bishai said, "but other places around the county are falling away now" as far as vaccines administered.

"Because we just don't have demand for the doses," Bishai said, "we've had to cut down our order" for COVID-19 vaccines.

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"That's going to leave behind pockets of susceptibility," Bishai added, particularly in Whiteford and Pylesville, where vaccination rates were below 25 percent.

"I fear for the children in those school districts because they're susceptible," Bishai said. "Vaccine coverage that low is going to keep open chains of transmission."

Especially after people travel this summer, Bishai said: "We're going to get the phone calls about outbreaks, and we're going to find the need to put people in quarantine."

Councilman Chad Schrodes, who represents North Harford, asked whether the county had data on whether people were getting vaccinated in York County, Pa.

Bishai said he asked for that information from the Pennsylvania Department of Health. "They have my request," Bishai said. "They say they'll get back to me."

Here is the COVID-19 vaccination data for Harford County as of Wednesday, May 19, according to the Maryland Department of Health:

  • 45.6 percent of the population has gotten one dose of a two-dose series
  • 36.963 percent of the population has gotten two shots of a two-dose series
  • 3.961 percent of the population has gotten the Johnson & Johnson vaccine

About 66.8 percent of the population in Maryland has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Herd immunity happens when enough people have been vaccinated against and/or infected with the virus to prevent its spread. For measles, 95 percent of the population has to be vaccinated for herd immunity, while for polio it is about 80 percent, according to the World Health Organization.

About 70 percent of the population has to have immunity from the coronavirus for the rest of the population to be protected from coronavirus, according to Amber D'Souza, who is on the faculty in the epidemiology department at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In Harford County, more than 16,400 people have been infected with the virus. The population is over 255,400, meaning about 6.4 percent of the population has been infected.

Positivity Rate Hits Low

There was good news about the coronavirus, Harford's health officer reported.

"It's slowing down," Bishai said of the spread of the virus.

Harford County's positivity rate was 2.76 percent Monday, according to Bishai, who noted: "That is a low for us this year."

Positivity should be below 5 percent for safe reopening of activities, according to the World Health Organization.

About two cases per 100,000 people in Harford County were being reported a day, Bishai said, a marked decline from a month ago.

Harford County's case rate was 32.05 per 100,000 in mid-April, when Patch previously reported the county was in what Bishai called a "fourth wave" of the coronavirus.

Still, he said, people needed to be careful.

"I'm just warning people that it's not over," Bishai said Tuesday. "The virus is still all around the world, and we're not vaccinated enough to put a wall around the county. I'm wishing we would be. There's still plenty of vaccine doses."

Pfizer vaccine clinics are opening up at high schools and middle schools in Harford County, Bishai said. Pediatric offices can receive Pfizer vaccines as well, he reported.

Find where to get the COVID-19 vaccine from the Harford County Health Department.

Masking Is 'Healthy Choice' For Some

"There are many people that are not vaccinated and are making the healthy choice to continue to wear a mask," Bishai said.

"Face coverings prevent COVID, and they also have really cut down on our rates of other diseases," Bishai said. "I'm thrilled to see the asthma [rate] going way down in the county and I attribute that to the use of masks."

He said emergency room visits due to asthma in Harford County were down.

The health officer issued guidance for specific groups around masking.

"I would encourage people with weakened immune systems, who are not vaccinated, people with asthma: Continue to wear a mask," Bishai said. "It's a healthy choice. It's just not mandated by the state anymore."


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