WORCESTER, MASS. (WHDH) - As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues to ramp up, Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday announced that more than two million Massachusetts residents will be fully vaccinated by the end of the week.
“We remain one of the top vaccine performers in the country on almost every key national metric,” Baker said during a news conference that followed a tour of a community health center in Worcester.
As of Monday, 1.7 million Bay Staters have been fully vaccinated and the state will eclipse the milestone of two million before the week is out, according to Baker.
“I fully expect that at some point later this week, we’ll pass two million people in Massachusetts fully vaccinated,” Baker stated.
More than 4.5 million total doses have been administered across the state since the start of the rollout, while Massachusetts remains the leader in the number of first and second doses administered among states with at least five million residents, according to Baker.
Baker said that Massachusetts is now the first state to deliver at least one dose of the vaccine to more than 50 percent of residents over the age of 18.
All residents over the age of 16 will become eligible for the vaccine on April 19 and Baker urged everyone to schedule an appointment when the time comes.
“The vaccine saves lives. If there’s any doubt in anybody’s mind about that, they should take a look at the success that vaccinating older Americans has had on older American case counts and older American hospitalizations,” Baker said. “They have plunged dramatically since we began vaccinating senior citizens.”
Baker noted that he continues to hope the federal government’s vaccine supply will “get to the point” where it can meet the state’s demand.
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