Health

MA State of Emergency ends

BOSTON — The Gillette Stadium mass vaccination gave its final shot on Monday. The state is closing in on the 4.1 million people it set out to fully vaccinate when the pandemic first began in the spring of 2020.

Right now the state has given 80% of the 18 and overpopulation at least one shot of the vaccine.

Massachusetts set the goal of vaccinating more than 4 million people and heavily relied on seven mass vaccination sites to make it happen. One of the largest vaccination sites in the state, Gillette Stadium, will close the day before the pandemic state of emergency is fully lifted.

Governor Charlie Baker gave an update on COVID-19 at a news conference at Bridgewater State University.

“We’re going to keep vaccinating people and keep trying to get people vaccinated and bump those numbers up as high as we can,” Baker said.

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Baker said he does not believe we will need to reopen the mass sites for a potential vaccine booster when and if needed.

“I think in long-term care or places like that we may end up running what I describe as a discreet and proactive program with respect to residences and staff. But I think for most of us it’s probably going to be something that is going to get worked into our regular healthcare process,” Baker said.

Even with the full lift of the state of the emergency -- some policies put into place including remote public meeting participation, restaurant expanded outdoor dining and eviction protections could be extended.

An agreement to extend temporary policies was not reached by lawmakers, negotiations are set to continue on Tuesday.

“I would certainly like to see something happen in respect to how we handle town meetings since we are still in the process of having open meetings, town meetings,” Baker said.

We also asked Baker if he would consider stopping the enhanced unemployment payment to motivate more people to go back to work considering some industries are seeing worker shortages.

“There are many ways for employers to bring people onto their payrolls and off of unemployment while at the same time making it possible to collect their supplemental payment and to stay in the UI system,” Baker said.

Gillette is scheduled to give its last vaccine shots by the end of the day on Tuesday. The Hynes Convention Center in Boston and The Reggie Lewis Center will also be closing this month.

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