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Kollegal Murthy and his family spent hours booking his first coronavirus vaccine at Eastfield Mall. Now the 81-year-old has no idea when he’ll get his second.
Murthy, from Longmeadow, was one of some 3,600 people who received doses between Jan.29 and Feb.3 at one of two mass vaccination sites the state runs with California-based Curative who left walk-in return – another bump in a difficult vaccine rollout in Bay State.
“It should be a lot smoother,” Murthy told the Herald.
His wife, Hélène Murthy, was more direct: “It’s extremely frustrating.”
The State Department of Public Health has said it strongly encourages all vaccination sites to schedule patients’ second appointments around the time of their first dose. But it is not compulsory.
“The way most of these programs are set up, you usually reserve your second dose while doing your 15-minute observation before you leave,” Gov. Charlie Baker said in response to a question from a reporter from the Herald at a press conference. this week.
“Not everyone will do it that way,” he continued. “But overall, the goal of most of these sites, which we think are the preferred option, is for people to book when they would come back to get their second dose before leaving.”
This was not the case at Eastfield Mall, Springfield’s mass vaccination site that the state runs in partnership with Curative.
Curative is now sending emails to anyone who received their first dose between January 29 and February 3 at Eastfield Mall or DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Danvers with a private link to schedule their second date. The state said about 3,600 people were not booked for their second photos during that time.
State Senator Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, said his office had received calls and emails from constituents like Murthy who had left the Eastfield Mall without a follow-up appointment.
“We reported this for the Ministry of Public Health,” he said. “They followed up and worked with Curative to resolve this issue.”
Sly Douglas, Northeast Regional Manager for Curative, said the company was starting to schedule on-site return appointments in Danvers and Springfield.
“Our IT developers have worked tirelessly to get people to make this process easier for our patients,” Douglas told the Herald. “We are rolling out the ability to schedule appointments as they go out and the patients loved it.”
Cambridge startup CIC Health, which operates the Gillette Stadium and Fenway Park mass vaccination sites, offers people a QR code that links to a website with openings so they can book their second shot while they wait under observation.
But John Dowd, a Chatham resident who was previously lawyer for former President Donald Trump, told the Herald that even this system proved “difficult” when he and his wife tried to find similar time slots. to come back for their second shots.
“The registration system must allow couples to register together so that they stay together, get vaccinated together and get a second date together,” Dowd said in an email.
For the Murthys – who as of Friday afternoon were still waiting for the email to sign Kollegal for their second shot – the whole vaccine planning process has been a big dose of stress.
“People are very anxious,” said his wife. “It’s totally impossible unless you are at the right time and in the right place to get what you need.”
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