A new mobile COVID-19 vaccine clinic will travel to get the shots to Baltimore's older residents, city and health leaders announced Monday.|| Coronavirus updates | Maryland's latest numbers | Get tested | Vaccine Info ||Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa joined partners from MedStar Health, Lifebridge Health, Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing to announce a mobile vaccination and outreach strategy targeting older adults in Baltimore City.“We are cautiously optimistic about where we stand,” Scott said.Scott said continuing declines in the city's coronavirus positivity rate are promising but that the vaccine effort will be key.The partnership is set to provide mobile vaccine clinics to the communities that need help the most.“This includes taking special care to make sure that older adults in our Black and brown communities, who are most susceptible to the virus and the least likely to have access to the internet and transportation, can be vaccinated,” Scott said.As an example, MedStar Health's mobile unit was out at senior living communities in Cherry Hill on Jan. 29, vaccinating close to 100 vulnerable seniors.Maryland online vaccination site locatorVaccine Data DashboardMaryland vaccination plan FAQs“We are seeing heartbreaking disparities in COVID in our community,” said Dr. Katie O’Conor, co-chair of vaccine equity at Johns Hopkins Medicine.Dzirasa said the city is focusing its limited resources to help the highest-risk groups who have limited to no access to sign up for appointments online or are unable to travel to vaccination sites.Dzirasa said the mobile clinic will start at senior housing sites to focus on helping residents who are at the greatest risk for negative health outcomes as a result of COVID-19.Dzirasa said the city also has plans to travel to independent living facilities, assisted living facilities and nursing homes that might not have been covered by the federal vaccine partnership."Our experience with the flu vaccination clinics late last year taught us that outreach before a mobile clinic is paramount to success," Dzirasa said. The city health commissioner said the only thing hampering an all-out effort is supply.“While our vaccine supply remains low, we will currently be able to vaccinate approximately 50 to 100 residents per mobile vaccination clinic during one visit,” Dzirasa said.Dzirasa said by summer, they hope to have up to 20 mobile units out in the field giving thousands of doses a day. And speaking of supply, Scott said he has reached out to Johnson and Johnson and Baltimore drug maker Emergent BioSolutions, requesting to pay for 300,000 doses of the J&J coronavirus vaccine.“I believe through this proposed partnership that Johnson and Johnson and Baltimore City can show a commitment to equity and efficiency a vaccine distribution in a way that is unprecedented across the U.S.,” Scott said.After touring Emergent BioSolutions on Monday, Gov. Larry Hogan said the mayor's effort was a "nice try." Hogan went on to say, "Everybody would like to jump to the front of the line, but that's simply not going to happen. Neither the states nor the federal government can get around the process that's in place."The mayor said the new mobile outreach strategy follows the Maryland Department of Health's guidance to prioritize senior buildings with the highest density of older residents age 65 and above. Rebecca Altman, vice president and chief integration officer for LifeBridge Health System, emphasized that many residents are desperate for the outreach, but don't feel like they have options. The mobile teams can fill in the gaps.“Sometimes, you know, everything nowadays is online using a mobile phone. We have many seniors and homeless that doesn't have access to that,” Altman said.Another big part of this is education. Teams will go out to locations prior to mobile clinics days to give residents a chance to learn more about vaccinations and ask questions