Alsobrooks calls for more vaccines for Prince Georgians at Six Flags mass vaccination site

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks urged the state of Maryland to allow more vaccine appointments for county residents at one of the state’s mass vaccination sites at a press conference Thursday. 

Alsobrooks said she wants the state to set certain days aside at the Bowie Six Flags America site for Prince George’s County residents to receive the vaccine.

Currently, only 11 percent of the doses administered at Six Flags are to county residents, Alsobrooks said. She wants to see that proportion reach at least 50 percent, she said. 

Gov. Larry Hogan announced Wednesday that the state has set aside at least 500 vaccine appointments per week at the Six Flags site for Prince Georgians. These appointments can be booked through a text-based outreach system, and they are only available for eligible residents. 

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But Alsobrooks said the current appointment system — run by the state through PrepMod, an online clinic management and scheduling service — has flaws. Shareable links have allowed ineligible residents to book appointments, she said, creating unmanageable lines at the county’s various vaccine clinics. 

“It’s no secret that this appointment system has been a source of frustration for all of you,” Alsobrooks said. 

To combat this issue, the county will be parting ways with PrepMod and instead using the county health department’s electronic system, she said.

Alsobrooks added that, even though nearly 118,000 residents are still on the vaccine preregistration list, the county can only administer as many vaccines as the state gives them. 

This week, the county, the second-most populous jurisdiction in the state, received about 6,200 doses. That’s almost 2,000 more than the 4,200 weekly doses Alsobrooks said the county is guaranteed and the third-highest allocation in the state this week.

But the county only has nine vaccine doses per 1,000 residents, the third-lowest rate in the state.

Still, Alsobrooks said the county will work to vaccinate as many eligible residents as possible.

“It is absolutely our mission … to ensure every resident of Prince George’s County has the opportunity to receive this vaccine,” she said.

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