HYATTSVILLE, Md. — Maryland's new COVID phone hotline may be the secret weapon for thousands of people desperately trying to get a coronavirus vaccine.
More than 9,600 people have secured appointments on the hotline just since its soft launch on Monday, according to Steve Kolbe, Chief Technology Officer for the Maryland Department of Health. Kolbe said 1,400 slots were booked Thursday alone.
On the Maryland Vaccine Hunters Facebook page, lots of people report successfully getting appointments by phone at the Six Flags Mass Vaccination Site even after failing online. Some said they got appointments by pushing buttons in the phone menu to request to talk to a real person, even after a recording on the line said there were no more appointments available.
Kolbe said people can try back repeatedly when the hotline is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., as appointments are released throughout the day, but operators told some callers that many of the appointments are released first thing in the morning. To book by phone, contact the Maryland Department of Health at 855.634.6829 or 855 MDGOVAX
Charles Gischler, a spokesman for the state health department, said the state has given 15,000 vaccinations at Six Flags and is booking 2,000 appointments there every day.
Kolbe said there were long wait times on hold early on, but insists they are getting better. Still, some callers report waiting an hour or more on hold, and others have complained about dropped calls. There are more than 300 phone agents available now, and Kolbe said there will be more than 500 next week, with the ability to scale up to even more call takers if necessary.
RELATED: 'Maryland Vaccine Hunters' | Facebook group gains momentum helping seniors find appointments
Hattie Blackwell and her granddaughter, Tatiana Blackwell, emailed WUSA9 at newstips@wusa9.com. They have been trying for weeks to get Hattie, 71, an appointment for the coronavirus vaccine.
COVID has already put the Hyattsville woman in the hospital for eight days.
"I cried every day she was in the hospital," Tatiana said.
Months later, Hattie Blackwell still on oxygen from COVID lung damage. She has heart disease, Crohn's disease, high blood pressure, and cancer.
The last thing she wants is to get COVID again. She's desperate to get vaccinated. "I need it, can't get it," she said. "It's ridiculous. And I'm afraid for myself."
WUSA9 walked Tatiana Blackwell through the hotline Thursday afternoon.
"At this time. all appointments have been reserved," the recording said. But she kept pushing buttons until she got an option to have a live operator call her back, which she did within minutes.
"She's 71 years old, she has a lot of underlying issues. We really need to get her vaccinated," Tatiana told the call taker about her mother.
Even the agent was out of appointments today -- but she told them to call back at 7 a.m. when they're like to release more.
They plan to be back on the phone every morning until they get one, even if that means getting up well before 7 a.m. and waiting on hold.
"Thank you so much for giving us hope, they said.