Gillette in play as large vax site
Stadium to begin operation Thursday for mass shot center
Mass vaccination centers are popping up at stadiums, theme parks and fairgrounds across the country in an effort to speed up coronavirus immunizations.
Florida last week became one of the first states to push ahead with large-scale vaccination hubs, transforming a sprawling testing center at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens into an immunization site that Gov. Ron Desantis said would be plunging “at least” 1,000 vaccines into arms a day.
Dozens of states are following suit — including Massachusetts, where Gov. Charlie Baker announced the opening of the first of three such sites — at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro on Thursday. The state plans to open others at the Eastern States Exposition fairgrounds in West Springfield and at Fenway Park.
Opening the mass vaccination sites signals the nation is moving to the next stage of a historic but slow-to-start immunization campaign that rolled out barely one month ago and has been marred by a lack of federal leadership. It comes as the U.S. is now averaging 3,000 deaths and 245,000 new cases every day.
New York City opened its first two sites — at Brooklyn Army Terminal and Bathgate Contract Postal Station in the Bronx — on Sunday. California is opening a handful of large vaccination sites in the coming days, including at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Petco Park in San Diego and Cal Expo in Sacramento, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced during a Monday coronavirus briefing.
More than 140,000 people have signed up to get vaccinated at one of several vaccine centers in three Texas counties, according to state officials.
As of Tuesday, roughly 9.3 million COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in the U.S., according to Our World In Data’s vaccination tracker.