Increased Vaccine Eligibility Means More Appointment Stress In MA

The state had far fewer appointments available for people trying to schedule their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine Thursday morning, the result of short federal supply and a wave of second-shot appointments filling up the mass vaccination sites.

And the jockeying for appointments is only going to get more crowded next week.

About 12,000 appointments came online at 8 a.m., tens of thousands fewer than in previous weeks. The state announced about an hour beforehand there were no first-dose appointments available for Fenway Park, Gillette Stadium or the Reggie Lewis Center. People were encouraged to check other locations.

"As more individuals have received a first vaccine dose across the Commonwealth, there is a greater need to book second appointments, so the mass vaccination sites have fewer first dose appointments available on a weekly basis," the state's COVID-19 Command Center said Wednesday.

Although there were far fewer appointments available, no widespread problems were reported on the state's vaccine finder website. Gov. Charlie Baker's administration had come under heavy criticism after users confronted with a broken website or weeks-long wait times.

The website will have to continue to hold up going forward as about 400,000 more people become eligible for the vaccine next week. Gov. Charlie Baker, under pressure from the White House and state lawmakers, announced Wednesday educators and school staff will be eligible to sign up for appointments beginning March 11. They can already sign up for appointments at CVS locations.

Baker said the federal supply needs to increase in order to meet the challenge of vaccinating all teachers amid a push to return to full-time in-person school. He declined to say whether educators will be fast-tracked to get them all shots before the end of the month.

Massachusetts will get about 150,000 doses of vaccine every week through the end of the month, when supply is expected to increase.

The first Johnson & Johnson vaccines were administered Thursday morning in Massachusetts, but it is expected to take weeks for a significant of doses to hit the state.

More than 80 percent of the state's 2.3 million vaccine doses had been administered as of Wednesday.