Governor Charlie Baker
HYANNIS – Governor Charlie Baker recently said Wednesday that Phase 1 of the state’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan is on schedule, though advised residents to still continue to practice safety guidance as Massachusetts rings in the new year.
Baker said that recent capacity limits and gathering reductions that went into effect on Saturday, December 26 were to ensure proper safety protocols and social distancing post-holiday and into 2021.
“These restrictions will be in place for at least two weeks and we will continue to evaluate the data to determine if any future steps should be taken,” said Baker.
“We’ve obviously been pleading with everyone for weeks to stay home for the holidays, just for this year. We also know how difficult that can be for everyone especially given all of the sacrifices people have been making for the better part of the past 10 months,” said Baker.
During the period of the Friday before Christmas and the Saturday after, Baker said the number of passengers at Logan Airport was down by 70 percent compared to the same time 2019.
However, travel was still up significantly when compared to throughout the rest of 2020.
The governor urged residents to avoid big new year’s gatherings indoors and to only spend the holiday with those already in the immediate household.
He also encouraged those still planning to attend some kind of celebration to at least make the event brief.
Baker said that residents letting their guard down and not wearing masks or social distancing around friends, family, and neighbors is one of the leading ways the virus can spread.
On the vaccination front, Baker said that long-term care facilities have already begun receiving their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
An estimated 20,000 individuals at 50 different vaccination clinics should be inoculated by the end of the week, he said.
In total, Massachusetts has received 86,000 first-doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 146,000 first-doses of the Moderna vaccine, with an additional 68,000 first doses of Pfizer allocated to the CVS and Walgreens-assisted, long-term care vaccination program.
Three-hundred-eighty-eight sites have received shipments of the vaccine, including hospitals, community health centers and long-term care facilities.
By the end of the day on Tuesday, 75,000 vaccinations were reported into the state’s new online immunization database, which will include information on the number of doses shipped, the number of vaccines administered, vaccination numbers by county and the demographic of those receiving vaccines.
The data will be displayed on an online dashboard that will update on Thursdays on the mass.gov website.
Clinics will continue on a rolling basis to distribute 219,000 doses of the vaccine to all long-term care facilities over the next month, said Baker.
The next high-risk group to be vaccinated as part of Phase 1 will be first responders, which is expected to begin next week, said Baker.
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