GOV RELEASE: Maryland’s GoVAX Call Center Surpasses 11 Million Outreach Calls, Over 1.5 Million Outbound Texts
More Than 460,000 Vaccination Appointments Scheduled
ANNAPOLIS, MD—Governor Larry Hogan today provided an update on the state’s multilingual GoVAX Call Center, which has helped schedule more than 460,000 vaccination appointments and made more than 11 million outreach calls to Marylanders.
“Our call center—one of the first of its kind in the country—has played a critical role in Maryland’s leading vaccination rates,” said Governor Hogan. “In addition to helping Marylanders seven days a week with scheduling vaccination appointments, the call center is conducting aggressive outreach to those who are unvaccinated and newly eligible for booster shots. I want to thank all the people working at the call center around the clock for their tireless efforts.”
The GoVAX Call Center was established in February 2021, early in the state’s vaccine program, so that residents could schedule appointments simply by calling 1-855-MD-GOVAX. On its first day, the call center received over 80,000 calls. Nearly 75,000 more calls followed on the second day. Within a few weeks, the call center was also placing nearly 5,000 outbound calls a day to assist those who had the most urgent needs with appointment pre-registration.
“We saw how effective the call center was in the first few days of operation,” said Secretary Dennis R. Schrader of the Maryland Department of Health. “It became clear that we could utilize the call center as a resource for a variety of activities designed to put vaccines in the arms of every Marylander, regardless of their circumstance.”
By April, the call center expanded its operations to support Maryland’s No Arm Left Behind effort, a series of statewide initiatives designed to reach seniors, homebound individuals, college students, Hispanic residents, employers, and more. To date, call center staff have placed tens of thousands of referrals to vaccine programs including rideshare, homebound support, mobile clinics, and MyIR.
The call center continues much of the daily work that it started earlier in the pandemic. The team remains busy delivering COVID-19 test results, informing Marylanders when they are eligible for booster shots, helping the state’s managed-care organizations get Medicaid recipients vaccinated, and providing real-time information on COVID-19-related resources.
To schedule a COVID-19 vaccination appointment, or see if you are eligible for a COVID-19 booster shot, call 1-855-MD-GOVAX (1-855-634-6829) or visit covidvax.maryland.gov. To find a location to get a COVID-19 test, visit covidtest.maryland.gov.
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