After more than a year of life limited by the COVID-19 pandemic, Massachusetts is closing in on 1 million fully vaccinated residents and, on Wednesday, announced a timeline for when the rest of the population can begin getting their shots.On March 22, anyone age 60 or over, grocery store workers and other COVID-19-facing essential workers will become eligible to make appointments for vaccination, state officials announced. On April 5, anyone age 55 or older or with one comorbidity becomes eligible. The rest of the state’s population age 16 or older will become eligible on April 19, well ahead of President Joe Biden’s directive that all states make the full population eligible before May 1.”The Administration has received assurances from the federal government that an increased vaccine supply will be available to states soon,” officials announced. Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration made the announcement ahead of a planned visit to the Shaw’s Center COVID-19 vaccination site in Brockton Wednesday morning. He is expected to discuss the reasoning behind the schedule after a tour of that facility. Baker’s statement will be streamed LIVE on this page when it happens.All Massachusetts residents can preregister for vaccination appointments at the state’s seven mass vaccination sites or use the state’s directory of smaller clinics to schedule appointments directly with other local providers. Two other New England states have already made announcements regarding their vaccine rollouts. Every Connecticut resident 16 and older will be eligible to be vaccinated starting April 5, while Vermont is aiming to make all of its residents who are 16 and older eligible by the end of April after discussing vaccine supply with White House officials.”I think all of us will be breathing a collective sigh of relief. Of course, the devil’s in the details here,” Massachusetts State Sen. Eric Lesser said Tuesday. “What we need from the governor, what we need from the administration, is clarity and consistency about the guidelines. People will be patient if they know there’s a plan.” Wednesday’s announcement from the governor’s office comes after it was announced that more doses of COVID-19 vaccines are being shipped to Massachusetts this week than previously expected.The state’s COVID-19 Response Command Center announced Tuesday that they are receiving enough supplies for about 170,000 first doses this week. Officials described it as a “modest increase” over the 155,000 doses received last week, but it was unexpected as officials previously said weekly shipments were unlikely to increase this month. Additionally, officials said this week’s shipments will include enough of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine for about 8,000 people. The state previously said more of that vaccine was not expected until the end of March.Another 106,440 first and second doses were allocated by the federal government directly to retail pharmacies and 9,500 were sent directly to federally qualified health centers. Massachusetts originally received about 58,000 doses of the J&J vaccine from an initial disbursement after it was authorized. As of Tuesday’s vaccine report, 62,899 doses of that vaccine were administered in the state. “I do think that we’re moving in the right direction,” said Dr. Gabriela Andujar Vazquez, director of the COVID-19 vaccine program at Tufts Medical Center. “I do think that we have seen improvement in general.” More than 2.99 million doses of the three authorized vaccines have been shipped to Massachusetts so far and 87.3% of those have been administered. As of Tuesday’s report, 946,306 people are fully vaccinated. Vaccination progress in Massachusetts:
After more than a year of life limited by the COVID-19 pandemic, Massachusetts is closing in on 1 million fully vaccinated residents and, on Wednesday, announced a timeline for when the rest of the population can begin getting their shots.
On March 22, anyone age 60 or over, grocery store workers and other COVID-19-facing essential workers will become eligible to make appointments for vaccination, state officials announced.
On April 5, anyone age 55 or older or with one comorbidity becomes eligible.
The rest of the state’s population age 16 or older will become eligible on April 19, well ahead of President Joe Biden’s directive that all states make the full population eligible before May 1.
“The Administration has received assurances from the federal government that an increased vaccine supply will be available to states soon,” officials announced.
Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration made the announcement ahead of a planned visit to the Shaw’s Center COVID-19 vaccination site in Brockton Wednesday morning. He is expected to discuss the reasoning behind the schedule after a tour of that facility.
Baker’s statement will be streamed LIVE on this page when it happens.
All Massachusetts residents can preregister for vaccination appointments at the state’s seven mass vaccination sites or use the state’s directory of smaller clinics to schedule appointments directly with other local providers.
Two other New England states have already made announcements regarding their vaccine rollouts. Every Connecticut resident 16 and older will be eligible to be vaccinated starting April 5, while Vermont is aiming to make all of its residents who are 16 and older eligible by the end of April after discussing vaccine supply with White House officials.
“I think all of us will be breathing a collective sigh of relief. Of course, the devil’s in the details here,” Massachusetts State Sen. Eric Lesser said Tuesday. “What we need from the governor, what we need from the administration, is clarity and consistency about the guidelines. People will be patient if they know there’s a plan.”
Wednesday’s announcement from the governor’s office comes after it was announced that more doses of COVID-19 vaccines are being shipped to Massachusetts this week than previously expected.
The state’s COVID-19 Response Command Center announced Tuesday that they are receiving enough supplies for about 170,000 first doses this week. Officials described it as a “modest increase” over the 155,000 doses received last week, but it was unexpected as officials previously said weekly shipments were unlikely to increase this month.
Additionally, officials said this week’s shipments will include enough of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine for about 8,000 people. The state previously said more of that vaccine was not expected until the end of March.
Another 106,440 first and second doses were allocated by the federal government directly to retail pharmacies and 9,500 were sent directly to federally qualified health centers.
Massachusetts originally received about 58,000 doses of the J&J vaccine from an initial disbursement after it was authorized. As of Tuesday’s vaccine report, 62,899 doses of that vaccine were administered in the state.
“I do think that we’re moving in the right direction,” said Dr. Gabriela Andujar Vazquez, director of the COVID-19 vaccine program at Tufts Medical Center. “I do think that we have seen improvement in general.”
More than 2.99 million doses of the three authorized vaccines have been shipped to Massachusetts so far and 87.3% of those have been administered. As of Tuesday’s report, 946,306 people are fully vaccinated.
Vaccination progress in Massachusetts: