BOSTON (WHDH) - Health care providers across Massachusetts won’t be forced to cancel upcoming vaccination appointments after more than 130,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine arrived on Friday, state officials said.
“Today, 135,025 [doses] arrived to the Commonwealth and as a result, providers will not have to cancel appointments,” Kate Reilly, a spokesperson for the state’s COVID-19 Response Command Center, said in a statement. “The Administration appreciates the efforts made to get this critical shipment here and is not anticipating additional delays from the federal government for vaccine shipments at this time.”
Baker expressed serious concern on Thursday over whether the Bay State’s expected shipment would be delayed by the winter storms that have spanned the country, shutting down transportation hubs and highways.
“We had been told it would be a few days late based on some of the issues around weather in other parts of the country, but we got told last night that we may see a significant delay in our next shipments,” Baker told the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
Demand for hundreds of thousands of new doses crashed the state’s vaccine appointment finder website on Thursday morning after Baker opened up the vaccination rollout to people 65 to 74 years of age for the first time.
Baker has also said that he gets routine requests from providers for four times the state’s weekly allotment of about 110,000 doses.
Reilly added, “Going forward, Gov. Baker urges the federal government to provide larger shipments and more lead time for the state, so more eligible residents can get their shots as quickly and safely as possible.”
The shipment is expected to jump to 139,000 doses next week. It’s not clear whether the 135,025 doses that arrived Friday is the state’s entire weekly allotment.
Federal officials on Friday said that about six million doses across the United States had been delayed by the weather.
Due to the delays and uncertainly over when the vaccines would arrive, officials in charge of vaccination clinics in Marshfield refrained from taking patients on Friday, but opted to schedule for Saturday and Monday instead.
In Framingham, officials postponed planned clinics rather than canceling them.
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