BOSTON — Massachusetts has vaccinated more than 859,000 people. The state’s population is roughly 7 million. Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker said the mass vaccination sites like those at Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium are doing the most inoculations.
“They are efficient, they are effective,” he said. “People come out of it very happy with the experience, and, the best part is, they are dosing at the level they are actually getting vaccine, which makes them the best player we have.”
The governor is not ready to open vaccinations to people 65-and-older until more 75-and-older residents get vaccinated.
“There are 430,000 people over the age of 75 in Mass.,” he said. “We’ve probably vaccinated somewhere in the 200,000 neighborhood.”
Health officials tweeted over the weekend that 5,000 vaccination appointments were open and that they were urging people to sign up. The governor said every single one of those appointments has ultimately been filled.
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“Mass sites are batting about 100% in terms of vaccine allocated and vaccine administered,” the governor said. “The few thousand that are available are toward the later part of this week. Not everyone makes a decision to do this five-to-seven days out, most do it two-to-three days out.”
Baker is also monitoring the outbreak of COVID-19 cases at UMass Amherst that happened when everyone returned for school. The governor believes getting students back to a weekly testing schedule will help get students back to following protocols.
“There is nothing like knowing every single week you are going to get tested to determine if you are positive or not, and that will put some consequence on where you can go and what you can do,” Baker said.
The governor would not say when he expects to open up vaccinations to the next group, which is 65-and-over.
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