Baltimore County’s COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium becomes a state mass vax site this week, but the county is still running the clinic.

Dr. Gregory Branch, the county health officer, said even though you can now register for the vaccine at Timonium through thestate’s website, county residents who have already registered will be able to get their shots.

“We will continue to take names off of our county registry for Timonium fairgrounds and all of our sites,” Branch said.

The county runs smaller clinics in Essex, Randallstown, Turner Station and Lansdowne.

The state is offering more resources for the Timonium mass vax site, but Branch said all he really needs is more vaccine.

“Quite frankly, I can probably, with the systems I have set up right now, do over 20,000 doses,” Branch said.

This week, the county got more than 13,000 doses. More than 375,000 people have registered online with the county for the vaccine.

Like other jurisdictions, Baltimore County is seeing its COVID positivity rate increase. On Wednesday, March 31 it was 5.51%. On Monday, it stood at 6.7%. Branch said the increase is not surprising because Gov. Larry Hogan has been easing restrictions, there are new variants, and people are gathering for holidays and spring break.

“When you put all of that together, we are going to have another spike,” Branch said. “The question at this point now is how many people will die.”

The state’s positivity rate also is rising. At an April 1 news conference, Hogan said that is not related to re-openings.

“Our indications are that these variants are much more contagious,” Hogan said. “That's why it's spreading across the country.”

“We opened up, but we didn’t have more vaccine,” Branch said. “I believe we are going to get more vaccine very soon, but the horse is going to already be out of the barn.”