Baker’s decision to add educators to the state’s eligibility list means that teachers will also be allowed to get the vaccine at any of the state’s 170 vaccination sites. In addition, Baker said, the state command center is expected to designate specific days at mass vaccination sites for educators to get vaccines.
But supply of the vaccine remains a concern for Baker, who estimated that it may take a month for everyone in the last eligibility group to get their first vaccine appointment. The state has received about 150,000 first doses a week from the federal government, Baker said, and that volume is unlikely to change dramatically this month.
It is estimated that 400,000 people will be eligible as educators, school staff and caregivers for children.
“The message that the governors received yesterday is that we should not expect a significant increase in supply until the end of March,” said Baker on Wednesday. “So it will probably take a while for everyone in this eligibility group to work on the system.”
Massachusetts received about 58,000 doses of the new Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine, which was authorized for emergency use by federal regulators on Saturday, and was distributed mainly to hospitals, health systems and some community health centers, said Baker. The state does not expect further doses from Johnson & Johnson until late March or early April.
“We hope to see a significant increase at some point in the future,” said Baker of the overall vaccine supply to the state, “because we have the ability to dramatically increase the number of people who are vaccinated in Massachusetts, but we can only vaccinate with the that we get from the feds. “
Educators were added to the eligibility list to be consistent with Biden’s directive and to limit any confusion between federal and state eligibility guidelines, the governor said.
“We don’t want people to get confused,” he said.
Baker made the announcement on Wednesday at a Gloucester school, where students and staff were celebrating the school’s 101st face-to-face learning this academic year. With excitement simmering, Gloucester Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken shouted “Yes!” when Baker announced the change in vaccine eligibility.
Pressure has been mounting for Baker to move up the vaccination priority list, an issue that became even more urgent for educators after state officials announced plans to force school districts to reopen primary schools for full-time classroom learning.
Both the mayor, Ronald Mariano, and the president of the Senate Karen E. Spilka said the Baker administration should focus on vaccinating educators, rather than forcing school districts to reopen quickly full-time. In a letter sent to the governor on Monday, 21 state legislators expressed similar concerns about forcing teachers to return to classrooms next month before they were vaccinated.
Some or all of the educators are already eligible for coronavirus vaccines in 34 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico as of Monday, according to Education Week.
In Massachusetts, teachers were scheduled to join the next group on the state’s COVID-19 vaccine eligibility list, which includes a wide range of essential workers. Food and transit workers, sanitation workers, judiciary workers, funeral directors and many others are part of this group.
It is unclear when the next group will be eligible for the vaccine.
The Baker administration had defended its vaccination schedule for teachers, pointing out guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – and comments by the CDC director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky – that vaccinating teachers is not a prerequisite for reopening schools, as long as other methods of mitigation are followed.
But Massachusetts teachers’ unions have been fighting for weeks to get their members promoted in the state’s vaccine eligibility process, even launching a pilot program for the state that would have quickly vaccinated teachers in up to 20 needy school districts.
“I haven’t had that hope for a long time,” Beth Kontos, president of the Massachusetts Federation of American Teachers, told the Globe on Tuesday afternoon after Biden’s announcement. She said at the time that she hoped that Baker would soon turn around and prioritize educators as well.
Felicia Gans can be contacted at felicia.gans@globe.com. Follow her on twitter @FeliciaGans.