Officials are planning to open Fenway Park as a booster-only vaccine clinic next month
After serving as a mass vaccination site during the initial vaccine rollout, the beloved Boston ballpark will now take a turn as a “high-throughput booster clinic.”
Nik DeCosta-KlipaDecember 15, 2021
1 minute to read
Fenway Park is reopening as a COVID-19 vaccine site next month — this time only for booster shots.
Both the Red Sox and Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration confirmed Wednesday that they are finalizing plans to open “a high-throughput booster clinic” at Fenway Park sometime in January.
It’ll be the second time the historic ballpark is utilized in the pandemic response, after vaccinating over 56,000 people as one of the state’s mass vaccination sites during the initial rollout in February and March.
This time, however, Fenway Park will only be open to fully vaccinated individuals seeking booster shots, Red Sox spokeswoman Zineb Curran said, specifying that it is “not a mass vaccination site.”
A spokeswoman for the state’s office of health and human services said Wednesday that more details — like the site’s expected capacity, scheduling process, and the brand(s) of vaccine offered — would be available “soon.”
“We are grateful for the leadership of Governor Baker, Lt. Governor Polito, and Mayor Wu on this vital service for our community and are proud to be able to lend our ballpark to help with this important effort,” Curran said.
The news comes after Baker said earlier this month that the state was working to open “some additional high-volume” booster sites, to address rising COVID-19 hospitalizations in Massachusetts, as well as increased demand for boosters.
The governor has urged all eligible residents to get a booster shot once they’re eligible, in order to boost protection against more transmissible variants. However, less than a third of the state’s fully vaccinated population has gotten a booster, and finding a nearby appointment for one can take days, if not weeks.
With retail pharmacies and smaller clinics accounting for the majority of vaccine sites in Massachusetts, more high-volume sites could address the bottleneck.
“There is not a shortage with respect to available boosters,” Baker said Monday. “The issue for us is creating capacity. We have over 1,000 sites that are currently available. We’re going to continue to work to see if we can build on that going forward.”
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Fenway Park, four other new high-capacity vaccine sites now open
These sites are in addition to the nearly 1,000 locations where residents could already receive the COVID vaccine.
Fernando Cervantes Jr.January 6, 2022
1 minute to read
With the Omicron variant spreading quickly around Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker announced last week the opening of five additional high-capacity COVID vaccination sites. Less than a week into the new year, the sites are now open to the public.
Three of the five new sites are located within Boston, two in the city’s Roxbury neighborhood and the other in Fenway Park. Sites in Lynn and Taunton have also opened as part of this initiative.
These sites are in addition to the nearly 1,000 locations where residents could already receive the COVID vaccine.
All five locations are state-sponsored and accept walk-ins, but appointments can also be made at vaxfinder.mass.gov.
The vaccination center at Fenway Park is set up to administer up to 1,300 doses per day, according to a press release from Gov. Baker. This site is also offering first and second doses for individuals 5 and over, and boosters for those eligible.
The sites in Roxbury are located at the Melnea Cass Recreation Complex and the Whittier Street Health Center.
The Roxbury sites are set up to administer 400 and 500 doses daily, respectively. The Melnea Cass vaccination center is offering Pfizer doses and boosters, and the Whittier Street location offers all three types of the COVID vaccine.
The site in Lynn is located at North Shore Community College and will administer up to 400 doses daily of all three types of the COVID vaccine. In Taunton, a COVID vaccine clinic has been set up at 2005 Bay Street, and can handle 400 doses daily of all three COVID vaccine types.
In Massachusetts about 5.1 million people have been fully vaccinated for COVID, with about 2 million receiving a COVID booster shot, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
For more information on vaccinations and clinic schedules and openings, visit vaxfinder.mass.gov.
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