3 More Coronavirus Vaccine Sites Coming To Worcester County

RUTLAND, MA — Three new moderately sized vaccine sites are coming to Worcester County, state officials announced Wednesday.

The "regional collaborative" sites will be located in Rutland, at Harrington Hospital in Southbridge and at Heywood Hospital in Gardner. The state is also counting the already open site at Worcester State University among the 11 regional collaborative sites announced Wednesday.

"The town of Rutland is pleased to operate a regional COVID vaccination site," Rutland Health Agent Richard Stevens said in a news release. "Rutland is the geographic center of the Commonwealth. We anticipate operating at 750 vaccine doses daily, five days a week. We are happy to fulfill this need in Central Massachusetts."

Each regional site has committed to delivering about 750 doses per day, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said during a tour of a vaccine supersite in Natick. The sites will be open to all state residents.

However, Gov. Charlie Baker said during Wednesday's event the state is limited by how many vaccine doses it gets from the federal government. The current allotment is about 130,00 doses per week. Baker said he's hopeful that number will increase soon. On Tuesday, Pfizer and Moderna pledged to provide about 220 million doses to the federal government by the end of March. The Food and Drug Administration also said Wednesday the Johnson and Johnson version of the vaccine is safe and effective.

Rutland officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment about where the vaccine site would be located and when it would open.