Feds boost shot supply at Hynes
FEMA partnership to bring an extra 6,000 daily doses
A coronavirus vaccine boost from the feds will bring an additional 6,000 daily doses to Hynes Convention Center starting at the end of the month, the state announced Friday.
“Massachusetts is a national leader for vaccines and this additional support from the federal government will help to increase access and availability to some of our most disproportionately impacted communities,” Gov. Charlie Baker said in a statement.
The partnership between FEMA and the state will increase total daily doses at the convention center to 7,000 as part of the federal Community Vaccination Center program launched by the Biden-Harris administration.
The program will be open to the public with additional services available for the most disproportionately impacted communities in Suffolk County, starting March 31, according to the state.
The federal expansion won’t cause any interruption to the appointment process and the state will also coordinate mobile units and community outreach to vulnerable residents.
The Hynes Community Vaccination site will have interpreters, free parking and contracted staff to support operations for eight weeks.
The site was chosen with input from state and local partners along with a data analysis including the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s social vulnerability index, population needs and challenges and available public transit options to the center.
“We are grateful for the support from the Biden-Harris Administration for selecting Massachusetts to host one of these sites and for the support of our congressional delegation in applying for this program,” Baker said.
FEMA has currently committed over $213 million and deployed over 10 federal personnel to Massachusetts to support vaccination operations statewide.
CIC Health, a health tech company based in Cambridge, operates four mass vaccination sites in the state including the Hynes site.
The company said in a statement, “We are extremely grateful for the additional vaccine supply and the corresponding complement of federal and state staff for the duration of eight weeks. CIC Health designed the vaccination site to scale, so we know the Hynes Convention Center has the ability to handle this increase in vaccinations.”
More than 3.7 million vaccine doses have been shipped to Massachusetts
so far and 3.1 million doses have been administered, according to state health data. More than 1.6 million Bay State residents have now been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.