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BOSTON (CBS) – Massachusetts on Wednesday announced a “streamlined” vaccine distribution plan that directs COVID-19 vaccine doses to high capacity sites and away from most small town clinics focused solely on their residents.
The state informed local health boards that it “prioritizes equity and high capacity throughout immunization, especially as the federal government vaccine supply remains extremely limited. . The plan will increase the immunization capacity of mass vaccination sites, regional sites and pharmacies.
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As of March 1, the first doses will no longer be provided to municipalities that have individual clinics serving only their residents. That state has said it will always make sure to distribute second doses so that anyone who has had their first appointment can get a full shot.
“Every town around me has braced and prepared to vaccinate their own,” Whitman Fire Chief Tim Grenno said.
Cities will now have to form a consortium and pool their resources to create larger, but fewer sites.
“This is where Beacon Hill is disconnected from the people of Massachusetts,” Grenno said. “Residents 75 and over will not go to mass vaccination sites.”
This week, WBZ heard from cities that have been frustrated with the lack of vaccines being sent, after being told last summer that they would be at the forefront of vaccine distribution. Scituate ran a clinic with 100 doses on Tuesday, and those who received a vaccine were happy with how well the process went.
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“People are a little frustrated because they are calling and our response is we just don’t have the vaccine to distribute,” said City Manager Jim Boudreau. “If we had it, we would give it away.”
The state will continue to support regional collaborations open to all residents of Massachusetts.
In Marshfield, the city has already turned the fairgrounds into a site for residents of Plymouth County. Now it will become regional
“To be a regional site, which we are already somewhat regional because we are Plymouth County, now with the new tenure of Secretary Sudders, we would probably become like a state site, but for the South East region Said Marshfield Town Director Mike Maresco.
There are 20 municipalities that will continue to get vaccines distributed because they have had “the greatest burden of COVID and have the highest percentage of non-white residents.” They are: Boston; Brockton; Chelsea; Everett; Fall River; Fitchburg; Framingham; Haverhill; Holyoke; Lawrence; Leominster; Lowell; Lynn; Malden; Methuen; New Bedford; Randolph; Revere; Springfield; and Worcester.
AFTER: COVID vaccinations open to the mass of residents 65 and over
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