BOSTON — About 400,000 teachers, day care workers and school staff joined the list of those eligible to book appointments for shots at the state’s mass vaccination sites Thursday and slots for next week’s vaccinations were filled by late morning.
About 40,000 appointments added Thursday were snapped up quickly, as expected, and the state cited high demand and “very limited supply” in a tweet around 11:30 a.m. announcing there were no appointments left.
By Saturday shortly after 10 a.m., all appointments at CVS locations had been booked as well.
CVS said Thursday morning that it’s adding 34 new locations across Massachusetts for vaccination appointments. A CVS spokesperson said appointments at the new locations will be available to book online starting Saturday, March 13, with vaccinations administered as early Sunday, March 14. CVS hasn’t yet released the exact locations yet but said they were across about eight of the state’s 14 counties.
A new preregistration site will go live on Friday for the state’s seven mass vaccination sites. Eligible recipients can complete an online form at mass.gov/covidvaccine and get notified when an appointment is available.
“Creating a pre-registration that makes it possible for people to register and then know where they are in the queue,” Gov. Charlie Baker said Wednesday as the launch of the new system was announced. “They will be notified when they are eligible and an appointment is available for them to book takes some of the heat and some of the sting I think the supply shortage does generally to people in the Commonwealth.”
The state is working with Google on the preregistration site, and Baker said he doesn’t anticipate any technical issues Friday morning when the site goes live.
“They’ve pressure-tested what we have experienced here in Massachusetts with what they’ve experienced in other states and they’re pretty confident they won’t have any issues,” said Governor Baker. He talked about the new program while touring a PPE manufacturer in West Bridgewater Wednesday.
While the mass vaccination sites will shift over to mass.gov/covidvaccine, the vaxfinder.mass.gov site will continue to list available appointments at local and regional health clinics. Appointments can also be booked at CVS and Walgreens.
CVS said Thursday morning that it’s adding 34 new locations across Massachusetts for vaccination appointments. A CVS spokesperson said appointments at the new locations will be available to book online starting Saturday, March 13, with vaccinations administered as early Sunday, March 14. CVS hasn’t yet released the exact locations yet but said they were across about eight of the state’s 14 counties.
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