Close Call: Delayed Vaccine Shipment Arrives In Time | Patch PM

It's Friday, Feb. 19. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• Some … good news? The state said its coronavirus shipment arrived from the federal government — three days earlier than expected after a delay — potentially saving vaccination appointments that otherwise would have been canceled.
• State lawmakers have questions, and they want Gov. Charlie Baker to be the one who gives the answers.
• The Boston Pride Parade and Festival is the latest large-scale event to be bumped because of the pandemic.

Scroll down for those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Thursday’s Top Story

That was a close call.

Coronavirus vaccination appointments will continue as scheduled after the state received its shipment of doses from the federal government, a supply that was not thought to arrive until next week.

There were serious concerns that providers have to cancel appointments due to lack of supply. The just-in-the-nick-of-time delivery of 135,025 doses of the vaccine will avoid that calamity.

The situation had gotten dire enough that Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday considered sending the National Guard to Kentucky and Tennessee to retrieve doses.

ONLY ON PATCH: President Joe Biden penned an op-ed exclusive to Patch about his the president’s plan to end the pandemic.

Today’s Other Top Stories In Massachusetts

They want Baker: There's no shortage of questions about how the Baker administration has approached its effort to vaccinate more than 4 million people. Legislators have critiqued everything from the governor's decision to allow healthy young people to get vaccinated alongside at-risk seniors to the delay in having a call center set up for people unable to book appointments online. And after Thursday, both Democrats and Republicans want answers as to why the state's appointment website crashed, despite the predictable surge in traffic as people aged 65 and older were allowed to try to sign up for the first time. (By State House News Service)

‘It’s torture’: Anger and frustration over the choppy state coronavirus vaccination rollout hit a new peak of exasperation on Thursday when the state's website crashed the day more than 1 million residents were newly eligible for the shot. North Shore residents expressed irritation not only about the crash — one day after Gov. Charlie Baker assured it would be able to withstand the crush of clicks — but also with the system that forced some to go through a long application process only to find out at the end there were no longer shots available at the Danvers mass vaccination site.

Maybe later?: This year's Boston Pride Parade and Festival will not be held in June due to the pandemic, the organization and city announced Friday morning. The Pride Parade and Festival may be held in the fall if possible. Boston Pride will instead be virtually celebrating its 50th anniversary. There will be a Pride Flag raising at City Hall Plaza and the Pride Lights ceremony honoring those affected by HIV/AIDS.