K-12 Educators And Staff, Child Care Workers Eligible for Vaccine March 11th

The Baker-Polito Administration announced Wednesday that K-12 educators, child care workers and K-12 school staff will be eligible to schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments starting March 11th. This group of workers will join the current eligible groups, which includes 65+ individuals and those with 2 or more certain medical conditions.  

The Administration has also released details on available appointments for the upcoming week. 

Teacher Vaccines 

Beginning March 11th, all K-12 educators, child care workers and K-12 school staff will be eligible to schedule appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine. Educators may book appointments at all 170 sites currently open to eligible residents in Massachusetts by visiting www.mass.gov/covidvaccinemap.  

Additionally, the Command Center will work to designate specific days at the seven mass vaccination sites for educators to get their shots.  More details will be released soon.

There are approximately 400,000 K-12 educators, child care workers and K-12 school staff in Massachusetts.  Due to a severely constrained federal supply and the existing population that is currently eligible for vaccines, it is estimated that it will take a month for all eligible individuals to secure a first appointment.  This timeframe is only subject to change if federal supply increases dramatically, including the recently authorized Johnson & Johnson vaccine.  

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Vaccine Appointments 

This week, we anticipate over 250,000 doses will be administered between first and second doses across all providers throughout the Commonwealth. 

On Thursday, March 4, 12,000 new first appointments for mass vaccination sites will be made available to eligible groups. Over 45,000 new second dose appointments have also been scheduled at mass vaccination sites. 

The number of new appointments (first dose appointments) is less than previous weeks due to the volume of second dose appointments. 7,500 appointments have also been booked by the call center (211) for older adults who were unable to use a computer to book an appointment and required assistance. 

As more individuals have received a first vaccine dose across the Commonwealth, there is a greater need to book second appointments, so the mass vaccination sites have fewer first dose appointments available on a weekly basis. 

Later next week, a new Regional Collaboration will go live: The Lower Merrimack Valley regional collaboration, to include the City of Amesbury, Georgetown, Groveland, Merrimac, Newbury, Newburyport, Rowley, Salisbury and West Newbury. Details on this collaborative will be on the website at mass.gov/covidvaccinemap next week. 

Johnson & Johnson Vaccine 

The COVID-19 Command Center was notified that Massachusetts is receiving only one shipment of 58,000 doses for the month of March. These doses have been allocated – primarily to hospitals and health systems. 

Based on information the Commonwealth has received from the federal government, the Administration does not expect to be able to order more J&J doses until the end of March or early April. 

While the Commonwealth is receiving limited doses of the J&J vaccine in March, the Administration is continuing to plan for eventual widespread distribution of the J&J vaccine.

Remember too, here locally that you can go to getvaccinatedberkshires.org to get more information and to book your appointment. You can also call the City of Pittsfield’s hotline, which gives current information for all of the major clinics in the Berkshires. That number is 413-449-5575.