2 New RI State-Run Coronavirus Vaccine Sites To Open This Weekend

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, RI — Two new state-run vaccines sites will open in Rhode Island this weekend, the Department of Health announced Thursday. Both states will operate on a limited schedule until more doses become available from the federal government.

The first site, located at Schneider Electric in South Kingstown, is scheduled to open Saturday. The Woonsocket site in the former Sears store on Diamond Hill Road will open Sunday. Both will operate from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tom McCarthy, the executive director of the state's vaccination effort, said they will open just one day per week for now, with more days coming once vaccine supplies increase.

Vaccine appointments for the new sites can be scheduled the same way as the other state-run sites, online at VaccinateRI.org. Appointments will be added for the first day of the new sites — 400 for each — at 5 p.m. Friday.

"We have a lot of great momentum going in our vaccination effort," McCarthy said, noting that more than 73,000 doses were administered in the state last week, the most in a week to date.

The state currently has the capacity to vaccinate 100,000 people per week, and continues to increase capacity. By next week, capacity will reach 165,000, McCarthy said, in anticipation of increased vaccine supply in the coming weeks and months.

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