Danvers Mass Vaccination Site Prioritized Over Local Clinics

Mass vaccination sites will be the primary distributor of coronavirus vaccine in the state as more than 1 million residents were added to the eligibility ranks on Wednesday.

Local boards of health, which had been organizing smaller clinics for town residents throughout the state over the past two months, were told they will no longer be receiving significant vaccine supply and should focus their efforts on outreach to residents who cannot travel to the bigger regional sites or are vaccine-hesitant.

"The big message we got from the pubic was: 'Vaccinate! Vaccinate!'" Gov. Charlie Baker said at his Wednesday news conference. "There's no question the fastest way to do this is with high-volume sites."

Many communities that have argued they are best equipped to vaccinate their own residents at schools and senior centers in town are now left out of that part of the process.

"I am very disappointed and frustrated with the whole vaccine clinic rollout," Wilmington Health Director Shelly Newhouse told Patch. "Local boards of health have been preparing for events like this through our Emergency Preparedness duties for the past 15 years. Developing plans, attending trainings, participating in mock drills — all so we can initiate pandemic clinics like COVID.

"We are ready. We are here."

(Massachusetts expands coronavirus vaccine eligibility to all residents 65 and older)

In order to have a regional site, it must be open to all eligible state residents, must be open five days per week, must be able to perform at least 750 vaccinations per day and must be located in an area that is not served through one of the mass vaccination sites.

Those sites are Fenway Park, Gillette Stadium, the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston and sites in Danvers, Dartmouth, Natick and Springfield. Among the additional regional sites are those on Cape Cod, the South Shore, the Berkshires and Worcester State University.

Collaboratives hoping to set up a regional site will have to apply for doses through the state Department of Public Health.

"(Regional groups) work because we can give them a significant amount of supply and they can dish them out in the communities and make them work effectively," Baker said. "But, if we're going to do a lot of people quickly, you've got to be more than a couple of hundred a day across a couple of sites."

Are you eligible for the coronavirus vaccine? Find your nearest vaccination site here.

The new guidelines may affect smaller regional clinics like the Salem State University site, which served residents of Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Salem and Swampscott two days per week, because of its proximity to the Danvers site, as well as likely eliminate clinics like the "pop-up sites" at the Beverly and Danvers Councils on Aging that were held Monday and Wednesday this week.

"It is very clear on a moving-forward basis the state is not going to be allowing clinics to limit clinics to zip code or municipality," Danvers Town Manager Steve Bartha told Patch. "Collectively, we want to see these vaccines deployed as fast as we can but it's a state-centric plan right now."

Residents can also make appointments through the federal pharmacy network and Veterans Affairs Administration.

"We're also working on plans to vaccinate homebound residents," Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll said. "It will take some time to vaccinate all eligible residents and we'll need to be patient as we work with state officials to maximize vaccination opportunities locally. As more vaccines are provided to the state from the federal government, we'll be ready to vaccinate more people at the local level."

Baker said he's been told the state will receive about 139,000 doses next week — up from 110,000 last week — but that is still well below the 240,000 doses he said can be distributed through the statewide system.

He said 70,000 appointments will go online through mass vaccination sites on Thursday.

"You've got to deliver on volume here," he said. "Larger enterprises can deliver a heck of a lot more vaccine more quickly, which is really important."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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