DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, along with the governors of Maryland and Virginia, penned a letter to the US Department of Health and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), asking for their active role in the region’s inoculating of federal workers against COVID-19.
Bowser, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam called on the federal agencies to redirect a portion of coronavirus shots designated for vaccinating members of Congress and the military towards essential federal workers, contractors, and employees of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) who are based in the DC region.
“The District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia simply do not have the resources available to support these priority vaccinations, due to the additional burden local resources that this mission would require — especially when considering the amount of vaccine each state receives,” the joint letter says.
Together, with @GovLarryHogan and @GovernorVA, we've requested that federal leaders directly supply and distribute COVID-19 vaccinations to essential federal workers and WMATA employees in the National Capital Region.
Full letter below. pic.twitter.com/zXclhXNXm0
— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) February 10, 2021
The DMV officials also requested “a federally supported and operated vaccination site for all essential federal workers, contractors and WMATA employees within the National Capital Region.”
More than 281,000 federal civilian employees currently work in the DC region, according to the Federal Office of Personnel Management. Over 30,000 of them (more than 10 percent) have been identified as critical personnel by the federal government.
Maryland and Virginia previously provided some of their vaccine allotments to the District for those who live in the two states but work in the nation’s capital.
DC, Maryland and Virginia have all seen high demand for vaccination from their residents and their vaccine doses fail to meet the demand.
