County set to release appointments
Direct registration now an option as supply increases
Anne Arundel County will release vaccination appointments directly without the need for preregistration, the health department announced Tuesday.
Because of increased vaccine supply from the federal government, county residents can now sign up for appointments directly without preregistering. The county will post new appointment times on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. and Thursdays at noon. Appointments will post to aacounty. org/covidvax. Residents seeking appointments can also call 410-222-7256.
Residents who want to get vaccinated at the state-run mass vaccination clinics, including the upcoming one at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, will still need to register at onestop. md.gov/preregistration or call 855-634-6829. The mass vaccination clinics will open on April 15 and are managed by the state. Appointments are preferred but not required.
Preregistration was necessary when vaccine demand exceeded supply, County Executive Steuart
Pittman said, as an alternative to the “vaccine surfing” occurring in other counties and a way to ensure people most likely to contract COVID-19 received vaccines first.
“But at the same time, our team at the Department of Health knew that as supply caught up with and eventually exceeded demand, vaccination strategy would need to shift, and that shift begins today,” Pittman said.
The county has had more than 182,000 preregistrations, according to county data from April 5. Of those, nearly 60% either received a dose from the county Health Department or unregistered from the county database. Those remaining could still be waiting or could have received a vaccine elsewhere but did not remove their registration.
The roughly 71,000 people who are still preregistered will receive appointments at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, Pittman said.
The move to direct appointment access is designed to speed up vaccinations, said Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman, as the health department has seen “it’s taking longer and longer to fill up out appointments.”
“And we’re also seeing a seven to 10% no-show rate at vaccine clinics now, not turn-aways but no-shows,” said Kalyanaraman, the county health officer. “And so I think we’re at the point where we’re seeing that this move away from pre-registration, this is the right time for that.”
The county received 6,050 first doses of coronavirus vaccines last week and another 6,000 this week. The state schedule slates the county health department for 6,000 vaccines a week going forward, in addition to hundreds that will ship to Anne Arundel Medical Center, University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center, local pharmacies and primary health care providers.
The county news follows Gov. Larry Hogan’s announcement Monday that the state will be opening vaccinations to all adults older than 16 who want one at the state-run mass inoculation sites. Beginning April 12, the governor has ordered all providers, including county health departments, to open vaccination to everyone age 16 and older.
The governor’s push was welcome, Pittman said, as the county works to stand up the public vaccination site at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The stadium will allow walk-up vaccinations, a function of the increased vaccine supply the state received from the federal government in recent weeks.
The county will still staff phone lines to support those who want a vaccine but do not have consistent internet access or the ability to use the websites. The county is also recruiting community ambassadors to help ensure vulnerable or hesitant populations have the education and access they need to get the vaccine if they want it.
In the last two weeks, the county continued efforts to correct initial disparities in vaccinations, which did not go to Black and Hispanic residents at a rate proportional to their share of the population. The disparity is due in part to the makeup of the groups prioritized for early vaccination, which skewed white, but also because non-white residents are more likely to have barriers to internet and transportation or work frontline jobs during the hours when appointments were offered.
Overall, those numbers still lag, with white residents accounting for more vaccinations than their share of the population. But over the last few weeks, the county has improved its vaccination of residents of color from 26.1% of overall vaccinations to 34.5%.
The county will post three days worth of vaccine appointments on Tuesday nights, Kalyanaraman said, and four days worth of appointments on Thursday afternoons.
Appointments secured on the aacounty. org/covidvax site will be located at one of the county’s six vaccination clinics at either Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Baymeadow in Glen Burnie, Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland in Hanover, Lula G. Scott Community Center in Shady Side, O’Malley Senior Center Annex in Odenton or the Pip Moyer Recreation Center in Annapolis.