BALTIMORE — A COVID-19 mass vaccination site will open at the Baltimore Convention Center Field Hospital (BCCFH) on Friday, February 5.
The BCCFH vaccination site will be open by appointment Monday through Saturday (Saturday vaccinations begin on February 13).
BCCFH is a 250-bed, state-licensed hospital managed jointly by the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) and Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM). The BCCFH is available to those recovering from COVID-19 and also offers an outpatient COVID-19 testing location and infusion center to administer monoclonal antibody therapies.
Vaccinations at BCCFH will be provided in the same space where COVID-19 testing is being done, which is accessible from Charles Street.
Vaccination is by appointment only, and no walk-ins will be permitted. Marylanders can register for an appointment at the BCCFH vaccination site online atwww.umms.org/BCCvaccine.
Due to a high volume of requests and limited vaccine supply, wait times between submitting a request form and receiving an invitation to schedule could be significant.
Individuals without digital access and in need of assistance registering for a vaccine appointment at BCCFH can call 443-462-5511 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. This line will connect individuals with someone who can assist with entering their information into the queue for appointments.
The state will also open a mass vaccination site Friday at Six Flags America through a partnership between the Maryland Department of Health, the Maryland National Guard, and Kaiser Permanente.
Gov. Hogan will visit the Six Flags site for its soft launch Friday morning with Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.
In coordination with Prince George’s County officials, the state has conducted initial outreach for appointments to a subset of the county’s pre-registration list.
Once that outreach—which began on Wednesday—is complete, additional appointments through Monday, February 15 will be made available to all eligible Marylanders.
Due to high demand and very limited supply from the federal government, appointments are expected to fill up quickly, the Maryland National Guard’s vaccination teams will provide support for the site.
Kaiser Permanente will provide pharmacy services and post-vaccination observation and care.
Vaccinations are by appointment only, and appointments to receive the second dose will be scheduled simultaneously. Patients will not be charged any fees and no insurance information will be collected.
While the state believes the sites will help speed up the pace of a slower than expected vaccine rollout, some county leaders fear they could potentially take away from their already limited supply.
“We received only 4,825 first doses from Maryland that is nearly 3,000 fewer than we received last week,” said Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski.
Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said the state also gave them a lower amount of vaccines than the previous week.
Ball said he believes the state should be focusing on improving distribution and address inequities in the vaccine’s rollout before expanding to more sites.
“I think as we’re seeing this limited supply, but an expansion of sites will actually cause even more confusion. i think it will be much better advised to work on ramping the amount of vaccine build in consistency in the sites then we expand the sites.”
