While Massachusetts health officials are working to increase COVID-19 vaccination efforts, a relatively low number of vaccination schedules for the first dose will be available on Thursday.
A spokesman for the COVID-19 Command Center said that about 12,000 new first appointments will be available on Thursday morning at the state’s seven large-scale vaccination sites.
State officials said the number of new consultations available was low due to the volume of consultations for the second dose and the limited supply from the federal government.
“As more individuals receive the first dose of vaccine across the community, there is a greater need to make a second appointment, so that mass vaccination sites have fewer first dose appointments available weekly,” says a statement from the command center.
At 7 am on Thursday – about an hour and a half before appointments were available at several large-scale locations – state health officials said that first-dose appointments were no longer available at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough or the United States. two Boston locations – Fenway Park and Reggie Lewis Center.
The remaining large-scale vaccination sites include: Doubletree Hotel in Danvers, the former Circuit City in Dartmouth, Natick Mall and Eastfield Mall in Springfield.
Vaccines for teachers
This announcement was made on the same day that the state’s COVID vaccine schedule was changed.
Massachusetts educators can start signing up for COVID-19 vaccination appointments next week, Governor Charlie Baker announced on Wednesday, the day after President Joe Biden said he was directing all states to prioritize teachers for the vaccines.
As of Thursday, March 11, K-12 educators, daycare workers and staff at K-12 schools in Massachusetts become eligible to receive the COVID vaccine.
There are about 400,000 K-12 educators, child caregivers and staff at K-12 schools in Massachusetts, officials said. The state estimates that it will take a month for all eligible individuals to guarantee a first appointment based on the current vaccine supply. Given educators’ scheduling requirements, state officials will work to designate specific days at the seven mass vaccination sites for educators to get the vaccines.
The increase in teacher vaccination occurs at a time when state authorities are looking for a return to face-to-face learning for elementary and high school students.
Where else can I get the vaccine?
Although only 12,000 appointments for the first dose are online on Thursday morning at the state’s seven large-scale vaccination sites, there are 170 sites currently open.
More than a dozen CVS sites in Massachusetts are offering the COVID vaccine, with new appointments posted on the company’s website daily.
The participating CVS pharmacies are located in: Boston, Braintree, Cambridge, Chelsea, East Falmouth, Fall River, Holyoke, Hudson, Ipswich, Lynn, Malden, Medfield, Methuen, Milford, New Bedford, North Easton, North Grafton, Palmer, Peabody , Randolph, Seekonk, Springfield, Sturbridge, Watertown, Weymouth and Worcester.
Scheduling can be done directly on the pharmacy website.
CVS locations in Massachusetts are part of an initial distribution of vaccines in 11 states: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
Eventually, vaccines will be available at pharmacies across the country, with the company estimating its vaccination capacity at 20 to 25 million vaccines per month.
Thousands more consultations are available at other pharmacies, including:
- Walgreens: about 1,000 inquiries are being released daily.
- Big Y, Price Chopper, Wegmans
- Stop & Shop, Hannaford
State officials estimate that more than 250,000 doses will be administered this week at all vaccination sites, when considering appointments for the first and second doses.
How many Massachusetts residents were vaccinated?
Massachusetts reached a milestone last month. The Department of Public Health announced on February 20 that 1,000,734 Massachusetts residents received at least their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
On Wednesday, that number increased to 1,281,680.
Although more than a million have received their first doses, hundreds of thousands still need the second. State officials say that just over half a million people have received the first and second doses, leaving around 700,000 still in need of the second dose.
The community has a population of 6,892,503, according to the most recent Census estimates.
Will the Johnson & Johnson vaccine not help?
Yes, but it will take time.
Massachusetts is receiving only one shipment of 58,000 doses for the month of March. More orders for the recently approved one-shot vaccine by federal officials are expected to be available next month.
Who is eligible to receive the vaccine?
Massachusetts entered Phase 2 of the vaccine launch last month.
Residents aged 65 and over and individuals with two or more medical conditions considered to be at increased risk for serious illnesses caused by the virus, and low-income residents and employees with affordable housing for the elderly are eligible to receive the vaccine.
Prioritized medical conditions include:
- Asthma (moderate to severe)
- Cancer
- Chronic kidney disease
- COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)
- Down’s syndrome
- Heart problems, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathies
- Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) of solid organ transplantation
- Obesity and severe obesity (body mass index [BMI] 30 kg / m2 or greater)
- Pregnancy
- Sickle cell anemia
- Smoke
- Type 2 diabetes mellitus
When educators become eligible next week, this will increase the number of eligible residents by around 400,000.
Groups that follow educators in priority rankings include:
- Employees in the food, beverage, agriculture, consumer goods, retail and food service sectors;
- Meat packers;
- Sanitation, public works and public health workers;
- Vaccine development workers;
- Food pantry workers and volunteers;
- Transit / transport: Uber / Lyft drivers / shared transport services / pharmacy delivery, workers in the ground passenger transport industry (for example, for people with disabilities, food delivery, non-urgent medical transport), Massport workers who are not police officers;
- Convenience store workers (in grocery store workers);
- Water and sewage utility employees
- Judicial system officials (judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, civil servants), except judicial officers listed as first respondents
- Medical supply chain workers
- Manufacturer workers (including biotechnology companies and those companies that switched production to medical supplies), suppliers of materials and parts, technicians, logistics and storage operators, printers, packers, distributors of medical products and equipment (including outsourced logistics suppliers and those who test and repair), personal protective equipment (PPE), isolation barriers, medicinal gases, pharmaceutical products (including materials used in radioactive drugs), dietary supplements, commercial health products, blood and blood products, vaccines , test materials, laboratory supplies, cleaning, sanitizing, disinfecting or sterilizing supplies (including dispensers), sanitary products, personal care products, pest control products and paper towels and tissue products.
- Undertakers and undertakers
- Port workers and departure terminal