State Receives Approval for FEMA Mass Vaccination Site at Hynes Convention Center
The Community Vaccination Center program will be open to the public, with additional services available for the most disproportionately impacted communities in Suffolk County, starting March 31
By Marc Fortier and Michael Rosenfield • Published March 26, 2021 •Updated on March 26, 2021 at 9:06 pm
The state of Massachusetts has received approval for a FEMA mass vaccination site at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.
The Hynes was already serving as a mass vaccination site, but the state said the partnership with FEMA is expected to bring an additional 6,000 federal doses daily to the facility, for a total of 7,000 doses a day when combined with the state’s current allocation.
“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. “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.”
The Community Vaccination Center program will be open to the public starting March 31.
The Community Vaccination Center program will be open to the public, with additional services available for the most disproportionately impacted communities in Suffolk County, starting March 31.
People interested in booking an appointment at the Hynes Convention Center vaccination site should continue to pre-register at vaccinesignup.mass.gov.
The state said there will be no disruption to the appointment process as a result of this federal expansion.
The state also said it will coordinate additional community outreach to assist vulnerable residents with sign-ups. Additionally, a portion of the federal doses will be designated for mobile units for areas of Suffolk County, including Boston, Chelsea and Revere. Additional details about that program are expected to be released soon.
We got our first look inside Boston’s Hynes Convention Center, which is set to become the largest mass vaccination site in Massachusetts as it ramps up operations and replaces Fenway Park.
The Hynes Community Vaccination Site will have interpreters available daily for residents speaking Spanish, Mandarin and Haitian/Creole, as well as the ability to use telephone translation with access to another 240 languages.
White House COVID Coordinator Jeff Zients on Friday announced Boston as one of three new federally partnered mass vaccination sites, alongside others coming to Newark, New Jersey and Norfolk, Virginia.
“Together, these three new sites are capable of administering 15,000 doses a day,” he said at a press briefing.
The Hynes will shift from a “type 3 vaccination facility” to a “type 1 vaccination facility,” according to the White House.
The location will be staffed mostly by the federal government, and Baker’s office said the support staff would remain in place for eight weeks.
The Baker administration applied in February for a FEMA-partnered mass vaccination site. Members of the state’s congressional delegation supported the push, writing to FEMA that month urging it to fulfill Baker’s request.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a Friday statement that she is “delighted” by the agency’s announcement.
Mass vaccinations are moving to Hynes Convention Center ahead of Red Sox Opening Day.
“This program will provide the necessary resources and support to complement the ongoing efforts by the Commonwealth to prioritize disproportionately impacted communities that have greatly suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Warren said. “I will continue to fight with my partners in the delegation to make sure vaccines are made widely available and administered equitably.”
CIC Health, which has been operating the mass vaccination site at the Hynes since it opened March 18, praised FEMA’s announcement on Friday.
“That supply influx, which will begin on March 31, will significantly raise the daily vaccination capacity of CIC Health’s operations at the Hynes to 7,000 doses per day,” the company said. “We are extremely grateful for the additional vaccine supply and the corresponding complement of federal and state staff for the duration of eight weeks.”
In addition to the Hynes, Massachusetts is operating six other mass vaccination sites: the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, the DoubleTree Hotel in Danvers, the Eastfield Mall in Springfield, the Natick Mall, and the former Circuit City in Dartmouth.
“Plenty of room in there,” said Don Archambault of Melrose. “It was like 90% empty in there, plenty of room for expansion.”
“It makes sense,” said Mario Taddeo Jr. of Dedham. “The Hynes Convention Center is massive.”
“The way to get shots into arms is to go out into the community,” said Dr. Lara Jirmanus, a family physician with a practice in Revere.
The Hynes was chosen by FEMA, in part, because of its accessibility to public transportation, but Jirmanus, who’s a fellow at the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, said there’s been too much emphasis on larger vaccination sites, which too many people just can’t get to.
“Why not set up, for example, in the hardest hit communities? What if every polling site became a vaccine site?” Jirmanus said.
State House News Service contributed to this report.
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Hynes Convention Center Launches as Mass Vaccination Site: Two Hours of Free Parking Available for Those Getting the Shot
by Seth Daniel • March 25, 2021 • 0 Comments
If there’s a little bit of a sporting event or road race feel to the organization of the Hynes Convention Center mass vaccination site – which went full-on starting Monday – there’s a pretty good reason for it.
With their road race and sporting event business gutted by COVID-19 restrictions, CIC Health and the state have utilized Boston-based DMSE Sports to help coordinate the flow of folks coming in for vaccinations to the new site.
Matt West, who is also the CEO of DMSE Sports, is now the director of operations for the Hynes site, and said his company is using its expertise from organizing races and events to keeping the vaccination site moving orderly.
“We specialize in road races and running races and anything from the BAA 10K and half-marathon all the way up to the LuLu Lemon San Diego 10K,” West said during the site’s soft opening on Friday, March 19. “Our business has been gutted by this virus and put on hold. So, we’ve pivoted to work with CIC Health to be able to manage these mass vaccination sites from an operations standpoint. It’s a game-changer for us to be able to get people back to running, which is what we specialize in.
“It’s connecting with people, moving people and understanding people,” he continued. “We have all those elements in a road race and we do them here at the Hynes Convention Center when we’re vaccinating people. We’re just trying to make sure people get through in a safe, orderly and comfortable fashion and that’s something you’ll see at the races we put on.”
The Hynes mass vaccination site is a product of the time, with conventions gone and the Red Sox looking to likely have a season this year starting in April, some things had to be shuffled. The mass vaccination site at Fenway Park will close by the end of March, and operations will be increased and moved to the Hynes – which has much more space and no convention business booked any time soon.
For CIC Health, which is based in Cambridge, this will be their fourth mass vaccination site – the others being Fenway, Reggie Lewis Center and Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.
“This is our fourth mass vaccination site for CCI in the Commonwealth,” said West. “Right now we have about 500 guests a day coming through our doors for our soft launch. Starting on March 22 we’ll be ramping up and we’ll eventually get up to around 5,000 vaccinations per day depending on supply through the state. We’re really excited to open our doors… Guest flow is a huge piece to all this. No one has ever done this before so managing expectations of ourselves and making sure we understand how guest flow will work has been huge.”
As an aside, to make things easier, there will be two hours of free parking for anyone being vaccinated at the Prudential Center garage, courtesy of Boston Properties.
“We have worked with our friends at Boston Properties who own the buildings next door and they have made available two hours of free parking for all guests coming to be vaccinated,” said West. “You can park at the Prudential Center garage and bring your ticket up and we’ll validate it after you’ve been vaccinated.”
David Gibbons, executive director of the Convention Center Authority (MCCA), said the Hynes gives space to ramp up from about 1,000 shots per day at Fenway to go to about 5,000 per day.
“During the darkest days we set up the Boston Hope hospital in the Convention Center and taking care of patients with COVID and the homeless,” he said. “Now we’re at out other building in the Hynes and giving vaccinations and it’s a lighter day. There are better days on the way.”
Gibbons said there were a lot of positives for being at the Hynes.
“The advantage here is the location,” he said. “You’re minutes away from a lot of different Boston neighborhoods.”
The site is currently giving out the Pfizer vaccine, as that is what the state is supplying them with. Each 1.8 milliliter bottle is prepared at a “vaccine bar,” where shots are drawn up and checked for accuracy and ID. Each vial of vaccine lasts six hours from when it is first punctured, said Margot Blume.
“It’s a very time sensitive operation,” she said.
Last Friday, some people had already secured appointments at the Hynes and were getting vaccinated. One of them was John Aubrey, of Revere Beach.
“I’m here because I want to be able to go back out to a bar at some point and I can’t now because they’re all closed,” he said. “This was easy. I booked the appointment, walked in and got a COVID shot. Everyone that can sign up, should. This is simple.”
He said getting the shot does make him feel a little more secure. “It’s a nice feeling,” he said. “I’d like to get the second one before I feel totally secure –