Hub preparing for mobile vax sites
Boston is preparing to start up mobile vaccination sites, and outdoor pop-up sites in parks or courtyards will follow a few weeks later, the city’s health chief said.
The city plans to launch the mobile clinics next week in partnership with Boston Emergency Medical Services. These will first be targeted toward Boston Housing Authority buildings full of seniors and people with disabilities, Health Chief Marty Martinez said — groups that recently became eligible.
“The goal is to be able to create mobile access — first to be able to bring one-day small vaccination clinics on site to locations where we want to create that access,” Martinez told reporters on Thursday. He said the city and EMS will start the pilot program next week, and look to expand it as more doses come in and more people become eligible.
“It’s complicated — you have to have doses, you have to be able to store them, you have to be able to make sure that you have a pharmacist who can do the legwork, and you have to make sure you have someone who can monitor folks” after they get the vaccinations, Martinez said.
As the weather turns for the better — and there are more doses and people eligible for them — the city will also look to have outdoor pop-up vaccine sites.
Martinez said the city wants to have “places where we can bring the vaccine. So we have looked at potentially parks, we looked at, you know, courtyards of buildings to really try to do that.”
Martinez said the city is “working on some dedicated clinics that will help us to create access for essential workers,” who will become eligible soon.
Boston currently has just under 20 vaccine clinics, including the mass vax sites at Fenway Park and the Reggie Lewis Center, plus clinics in various neighborhoods. Mayor Martin Walsh also said that the Boston Resiliency Fund, which raises money through donations and channels it to organizations and businesses in the city, will have its largest round of funding at $3.8 million.
“This also represents the last funding round during my time as mayor,” Walsh said.
As has been the case since President Biden picked him for Labor secretary in January, Walsh had Martinez take questions in his place. The mayor is expected to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate soon.