Registration opens to get vaccinated at Fenway Park Thursday
By Mary Markos and Monica Madeja • Published January 28, 2021 • Updated on January 28, 2021 at 12:51 pm
A select few will get their coronavirus vaccine at Fenway Park Friday in a soft launch of Boston’s first mass vaccination site, while everyone who is eligible can start signing up Thursday.
Residents 75 and older can now begin scheduling appointments online to get their first dose of the vaccine at the home of the Boston Red Sox when the site officially opens on Feb. 1.
At the start, up to 500 people will be vaccinated per day at Fenway. Operations will gradually ramp up to 1,250 per day as the Massachusetts coronavirus vaccine rollout plan continues.
“Throughout its history, Fenway Park has been a gathering place for more than just baseball, and we are honored to now open our gates as a safe location in the city of Boston for our community to receive the COVID-19 vaccination,” Red Sox President & CEO Sam Kennedy said.
“Getting our population vaccinated is a massive undertaking for our public health and government officials that requires collaboration and support from a variety of industries. We are eager to get our facility up and running so we can all begin the process of recovery from this dreadful virus.”
The home of the Red Sox will be Boston’s first location for mass vaccinations against COVID-19.
Gov. Charlie Baker announced the state’s second large-scale vaccination site last Tuesday, joining Gillette Stadium under the operation of Cambridge-based health tech company CIC Health in a large partnership with other health and logistics companies.
On the heels of its Jan.18 launch at Gillette Stadium, CIC Health recently reached a milestone of administering 10,000 shots. CIC Health Chief Marketing and Experience Officer Rodrigo Martinez noted that people will need to be patient considering the exceptionally high demand.
“There are, of course, going to be more people in than those numbers who want to get an appointment,” Martinez said. “Some will get them the first week, some will have to wait and get them the second week. Some of us, our relatives, even though they qualify, they will have to wait. We’re doing everything we can to open as many appointments as possible, still being safe, efficient and effective in this operation.”
Patriots owner Robert Kraft detailed how at Gillette Stadium will play a major role in administering coronavirus vaccinations.
After receiving the first shot, people will stay under observation for 15 to 30 minutes, Martinez said. Folks will be able to book the second shot at their first appointment.
Between the two sites, a total of 20,000 new appointments will become available, according to state officials.
“Mass vaccination sites like Fenway Park are critical to our state’s vaccine distribution process — providing convenient, safe, and efficient access for thousands of residents,” Baker said in a statement. “Our administration is hugely grateful to our hometown sports teams for stepping up to support the Commonwealth during the pandemic.”
As of Thursday, however, no appointments for next week were available for the sites at Fenway or Gillette.
The Baker administration on Thursday also announced that vaccination sites in Springfield and Danvers had made another 15,000 appointments available; and that CVS Health would post 1,152 new appointments daily across their eight sites across the state.
Baker on Wednesday defended the state’s vaccination plan despite hiccups in the rollout process, saying high demand is outstripping the state’s supply of doses. The governor urged patience until federal authorities can provide a steadier supply of vaccines.
Many residents have complained about the state’s vaccination website, saying it is difficult to navigate, especially for senior citizens.
More Coronavirus Vaccine Coverage in Mass.
Massachusetts has fallen behind every other New England state in vaccinations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how to get the COVID-19 vaccine at Fenway Park
“It’s pretty surreal.”
Nik DeCosta-KlipaJanuary 30, 2021
5 minutes to read
Fenway Park is set to admit hundreds of Massachusetts residents a day through its gates — but not for baseball, of course.
The 112-year-old home of the Red Sox is serving as the state’s second-largest mass COVID-19 vaccination site, with plans to administer roughly 500 vaccines doses a day when Phase 2 of the Massachusetts rollout begins Monday before ramping up to 1,250 the following week.
State officials are working to set up more than 100 public vaccination sites, big and small, across Massachusetts. However, it’s hard to say any are as unique as the one off Jersey Street.
Here’s how it works:
First, find out if you’re eligible:
The Fenway Park vaccination site is open to all Massachusetts residents — not just Bostonians — who are eligible to get the vaccine under the state’s three-phase prioritization plan.
As of opening day Monday, that means anyone included in Phase 1 who has yet to get the vaccine and the first Phase 2 priority group: residents over the age of 75.
Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration has said the rollout will expand to other Phase 2 groups — individuals over the age of 65, people with health conditions that make them vulnerable to COVID-19, and frontline workers like teachers — later in February.
The rest of the public will become eligible in Phase 3, which officials say is on track to begin in April.
While it’s unclear when fans will be allowed back at stadiums in Massachusetts, officials are planning to keep the site operational through at least the beginning of baseball season this spring.
Rachel Wilson, the chief operating officer of CIC Health, the Cambridge company managing the Fenway Park vaccination site, told Boston.com that they won’t be open during games, but hope to at least have limited hours of days that the Red Sox are playing.
“Our goal is actually to keep this going as long as we possibly can, even if there are some disruptions to the schedule,” Wilson said.
Make an appointment:
Individuals can register for an appointment through the CIC Health website. Click “schedule now” under Fenway Park and search by date to find an open time slot.
Appointments are currently available 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, though CIC Health says they plan to expand those hours to 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and also weekends in a couple of weeks.
However, a note of caution: due to the limited national supply of vaccine doses, appointments across Massachusetts are scarce and they fill up fast. Case in point, the time slots at Fenway Park had already been booked through the first week of February.
Officials currently plan to list new appointments for the coming week each Thursday, though that may change later on to ensure everyone is getting a fair shot to book a slot.
(Again, there are more than a hundred other vaccination sites in Massachusetts, including another mass vaccination site at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood.)
Getting there:
As usual, there are a number of public transit options for getting to Fenway, whether by MBTA subway, commuter rail, or bus.
Parking around Fenway is normally pretty limited and — unlike the vaccine itself — not free.
There are several dozen paid parking lots and garages within walking distance of the park. However, with traffic in general down due to the pandemic, officials do suggest metered street parking as an option. There are also reserved handicap parking along Jersey Street between Van Ness Street and Boylston Street.
For the sake of your meter, staff estimate that the entire process takes about 45 minutes to an hour.
Once you’re there:
OK, now the exciting part:
Patients enter through Fenway Park’s Gate A — located on the corner of Brookline Avenue and Jersey Street — into the vaccination site, which runs inside along the third-baseline concourse.
Upon arrival, they’ll be asked to check in and complete a health screening. Face coverings are required at the site, and patients will be asked to put on a fresh surgical mask provided by staff to either replace or put on over their existing mask.
“It’s very important to us to make sure that there’s no COVID spread here on site,” Wilson, the chief operating officer of CIC Health, said.
After checking in, patient will then line up on the concourse while they wait to be called to vaccination stations.
Mindful of the winter weather, both Red Sox and CIC Health officials insisted that they organized the appointment process to avoid outdoor waits. While they plan to stay open and honor appointments during inclement weather like snow, staff will notify individuals to cancel and reschedule their appointments if conditions become unsafe.
When a station opens, patients will be ushered up the concourse (staff will also have wheelchairs available) to a row of tables near the ballpark’s third baseline Sam Adams bar, where staff in protective gear administer the actual shots. Currently, Fenway is administering the vaccine developed by Pfizer.
CIC Health staff say that process of getting the vaccine itself takes roughly five minutes.
Patients will then be taken to an adjacent observation area for 15 minutes (or 30 minutes for some patients) to be monitored in case they have any immediate reactions to the vaccine. It’s during that time that staff will come around and help them schedule their second booster shot for roughly 21 days later.
Once patients have finished their time in the observation area, the site also offers several enclosed lookouts with a view of the field. The site also has buttons that read “I got vaccinated at Fenway Park.”
After a soft launch this past Thursday and Friday, staff are hoping that the photo opportunities and buttons serve as a tool to encourage other residents to get the vaccine, amid evidence that around a quarter of Americans are hesitant about the shots.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Wilson said. “Our goal is to get everybody vaccinated here, so we can get back to play as soon as possible.”
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