State, Prince George’s Partner to Get Vaccines to Residents

Prince George’s County residents will be guaranteed more than 2,000 COVID-19 vaccines a week at the state’s “mass vaccination” site at Six Flags America in Largo, Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) and County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks (D) announced on Wednesday.

The set-aside doses — “at least” 300 per day, seven days a week — are part of a multi-pronged approach to boost vaccination rates in the county, Hogan said in a news release.

Currently the state reserves 500 appointments per week for county residents at Six Flags, Maryland’s first “mass-vax” site.

Prince George’s, the state’s largest majority-Black county, has lagged in vaccinations. The county represents approximately 15% of the state’s population, but fewer than 10% of residents have been vaccinated, state Senators were told at a briefing on Monday.

That’s the largest such disparity in the state and has fueled criticism of Hogan from his one-time foe, Rep. Anthony G. Brown (D) and others.

“With vaccine supply from the federal government set to increase in the coming weeks, we are able to further expand priority appointments for Prince Georgians,” said Hogan in a statement.

Said Alsobrooks, who toured the Six Flags site with Hogan the day it opened: “We have been working diligently in the county to expand vaccination access for our residents, and these new partnerships and increased access to appointments will help ensure vaccines are being distributed equitably to the hardest-hit jurisdiction in the state.”

In addition to the 2,100 set-aside appointments at Six Flags, the state is taking other steps to ensure that vaccines administered in Prince George’s go to county residents and not people from surrounding jurisdictions:

• A clinic at First Baptist Church of Glenarden will soon offer “up to 980 shots per day by the end of the month.”

• Walmart is conducting 500-dose “closed clinics” for county residents each week at its Clinton store, and 200-dose clinics at its Landover store, the state said.

• Wegman’s has begun 200-dose closed clinics at its Lanham store.

• Giant is utilizing 2,200 doses for closed clinics to vaccinate disabled populations.

• The state also provides weekly allocations to the Prince George’s County Health Department, hospitals, and community health centers to vaccinate eligible populations, the state said.

The state will book appointments at Six Flags using a text-based system to reach residents whose numbers have been provided from the county’s pre-registration list. The county health department has provided information for 30,000 individuals from that list for that purpose, Hogan’s office said.

Taken together, the steps will account for nearly 10,000 “priority appointments” per week for Prince Georgians, officials said.

Last week, a New York Times analysis found that Maryland had the lowest Black vaccination rate in the country.

While African-Americans represent 31% of the population, 35% of the state’s COVID-19 deaths have been Black.

Black Marylanders, in the meantime, have received only 16 percent of first doses, state data show.

In an interview on Tuesday, before the Hogan-Alsobrooks announcement, Brown said the state had “botched” its vaccination rollout “from Day 1.”

“The governor has just done a really poor job,” he added.

Brown said if it were not for Hogan’s “hubris,” Maryland would copy West Virginia, a state with a single online registration system that can be accessed online and through a toll-free hotline.

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