Natick Mall Mass Vaccine Site Closing Next Month

NATICK, MA — The mass coronavirus vaccine site at the Natick Mall will close by early June, part of a plan to shift vaccinations to regional sites, Gov. Charlie Baker said Monday.

The Natick site is one of four large sites that will close along with Gillette Stadium, a DoubleTree hotel in Danvers and the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. Three other mass vaccine sites in Springfield, Boston and Dartmouth will remain open.

Baker said the state plans to direct more vaccines to 22 regional vaccine sites, which are run by local health departments.

"At the mass vaccination sites, the Commonwealth has administered 1.2 million doses and fully vaccinated more than a half a million people since the first site opened on Jan. 18," Baker said during a news conference Monday. "These sites still have hundreds of thousands of appointments over the next three weeks to do more. The state expects to administer around 250,000 second doses and another 180,000 first doses over the next seven days across all of those sites."

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Massachusetts opened vaccine eligibility to anyone over age 16 on April 19. On Monday, the Boston Globe reported that demand for vaccines has started to drop with millions now fully vaccinated. Health officials told the paper that the next focus will be on people who are harder to reach, either because of vaccine skepticism, or because existing vaccine sites are hard to get to.