BOSTON — The administration of Gov. Charlie Baker today announced in a written statement that K-12 educators, child care workers, and K-12 school staff will be eligible to schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments starting March 11.
This group of workers will join the current eligible groups (including those 65+ and individuals with 2+ certain medical conditions). The administration also released details on available appointments for the upcoming week.
Teacher Vaccines
Beginning March 11, all K-12 educators, child care workers, and K-12 school staff will be eligible to schedule appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine. Educators will be able to book appointments at all 170 sites currently open to eligible residents in Massachusetts by visiting mass.gov/covidvaccinemap.
In addition, the command center will work to designate specific days at the seven mass vaccination sites for educators to get their shots. More details will be released soon, Baker said.
There are approximately 400,000 K-12 educators, child care workers, and K-12 school staff in Massachusetts. Because of what Baker calls a “severely constrained federal supply” and the existing population currently eligible for vaccines, it will take a month for all eligible individuals to secure a first appointment. This timeframe is only subject to change if federal supply increases dramatically, including the recently authorized one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Vaccine Appointments
The administration expects more than 250,000 first and second doses will be administered this week across all providers in the commonwealth.
Tomorrow, March 4, approximately 12,000 new first appointments for mass vaccination sites will be made available to eligible groups. More than 45,000 new second dose appointments have also been scheduled at mass vaccination sites.
The number of new appointments (i.e. first dose appointments) is less than the previous week’s because of the volume of second dose appointments. About 7,500 appointments have also been booked by the 211 call center for older adults who were unable to use a computer to book an appointment and required assistance.
As more individuals have received a first vaccine dose across the state, there is a greater need to book second appointments, so mass vaccination sites have fewer first dose appointments available on a weekly basis.
Later next week, a new regional collaboration will go live: the Lower Merrimack Valley regional collaboration, which includes the municipalities of Amesbury, Georgetown, Groveland, Merrimac, Newbury, Newburyport, Rowley, Salisbury, and West Newbury. Details on this collaborative will be on the website at mass.gov/covidvaccinemap next week.
Johnson & Johnson Vaccine
The COVID-19 Command Center was notified that Massachusetts is receiving only one shipment of 58,000 doses for the month of March. These doses have been allocated primarily to hospitals and health systems.
Based on information the state has received from the federal government, the administration does not expect to be able to order more J&J doses until the end of March or early April.
While the state is receiving limited doses of the J&J vaccine in March, the administration is continuing to plan for eventual widespread distribution of the J&J vaccine.
