Local leaders in the Washington, DC area have asked the federal government to step in and take over the vaccination operations for essential federal employees.
In a letter sent by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, the officials say they simply cannot handle vaccination of essential federal employees that work in the DC area on top of all other residents.
“The District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia simply do not have the resources available to support these priority vaccinations, due to the additional burden on local resources that this mission would require – especially when considering the amount of vaccine each state receives,” states the letter.
The letter notes that figures from the Office of Personnel Management show that there are over 281,000 civilian federal employees that work in the DC area, and over 10% of those workers (30,000+) have been identified as essential federal employees who would need the vaccine.
Under the proposal outlined in the letter, the needed vaccine supplies would come from the federal government’s supply rather than the local supplies.
The letter was sent to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Department of Health and Human Services.
DCist.com reported that FEMA is currently reviewing the request, and The Washington Post reported that if the federal government ultimately does not take over the vaccination process for DC area essential federal workers, the region’s governments plan to vaccinate them.
