State launching new vaccine preregistration site, dedicated days for educators

BOSTON — Thursday Governor Baker’s office sent out a new statement on vaccines for educators:

“The Baker-Polito Administration is dismayed that despite reasonable efforts to prioritize educator vaccinations, the teachers’ unions continue to demand the Commonwealth take hundreds of thousands of vaccines away from the sickest, oldest and most vulnerable residents in Massachusetts and divert them to the unions’ members, 95% of which are under age 65.  Building an entirely new, exclusive, teacher-only, school by school distribution system would make Massachusetts’ vaccination system slower, less equitable and far more complicated.   The Administration implores the unions to do the math: the state only gets 150,000 first doses every week. There are about one million eligible residents comprised of educators, older adults and people with serious health conditions. Diverting hundreds of thousands of vaccines to an exclusive, teacher-only distribution system would deny the most vulnerable and the most disproportionately impacted residents hundreds of thousands of vaccines. The Baker-Polito Administration does not support diverting hundreds of thousands of vaccines away from the populations most likely to suffer serious illness and most likely to lose their lives to COVID.” – Tim Buckley, Senior Advisor

The state will roll out a new website Friday that will allow people eligible to get the vaccine to preregister for appointments at mass vaccination sites and get notified when a slot is available, after weekly frustrations and traffic surges as thousands rush to secure appointments each week, and also announced new dates dedicated to vaccinating teachers and school staff.

The new system, announced Wednesday, will go live starting March 12 and will initially only include preregistration at the seven mass vaccination sites. The state said the new site, mass.gov/COVIDvaccine, is a partnership between the Baker administration and Google Cloud Team will replace the other current booking site at vaxfinder.mass.gov for all mass vaccination appointment scheduling. The vaxfinder.mass.gov site will still include 170 other local and regional sites and their availability.

The state said that 40,000 new first dose appointments for mass vaccination sites will go live on the state’s current vaccine website vaxfinder.mass.gov Thursday morning, along with 40,000 appointments for second doses. Fewer first dose appointments will be available this week due to second doses that are needed, according to the Baker administration.

Here’s how the preregistration system will work starting Friday, March 12:

• Eligible residents can fill out at mass.gov/COVIDVaccine to request to book an appointment at a mass vaccination site nearby.
• Residents will get a confirmation by phone, email or text along with a weekly update about their status. You can opt-out if you get an appointment sooner at another location
• When an appointment becomes available at a mass vaccination site, the resident will be notified and will have 24 hours to accept the appointment once it is offered to them. If an appointment is not accepted after 24 hours, the resident will go back into the queue to wait for another appointment.
• Family members, caregivers or other companions can fill out the form on behalf of someone else.
• Residents who do not have internet access or someone to fill the form out for them can call 2-1-1 to preregister.

The new booking platform marks a significant shift in the Baker administration’s vaccine rollout after weeks of criticism from lawmakers and residents, particularly aimed at the stress created by jockeying to secure a slot.

“Google Services is working with us to deploy this new preregistration website that will eliminate the need for people to compete to find appointments throughout the state at the mass vax sites, allow us to preregister people, and build out a waiting list that will allow us to proactively notify people through text, email or phone,” said Secretary of Technology and Security Services Curt Wood.

Educator-only weekend appointments

Nearly 400,000 teachers and school staff are eligible to book vaccine appointments starting Thursday through the state’s vaccine website and through pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens.

The state announced Wednesday that it will designate four weekend days for educators at mass vaccination sites: Saturday, March 27; Saturday, April 3; Saturday, April 10; and Sunday, April 11.

Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders said during a Wednesday morning briefing that the state should be able to administer 20,000 to 25,000 doses to educators and support staff across those four days, depending on federal supply.

Educators can schedule appointments through the new preregistration system for the weekend appointments starting March 12.

The state said teachers and staff should also look for available appointments through CVS site that are sent through the federal retail pharmacy program, and warned that due to the limited supply of doses, it may take until “mid-April or later” for all educators to get vaccinated.

The State House News Service contributed to this report

Download the free Boston 25 News app for up-to-the-minute push alerts

>> Complete local and national coronavirus coverage here

RESOURCES:

- Complete local and national coronavirus coverage here

- Follow us on Facebook and Twitter | Watch Boston 25 NOW

- Download our free apps for your phone and smart TV