Available Doses Not Keeping Up With Vaccination Plan: Patch PM
Today is Friday, Jan. 16. Here are some of the top stories today.
Massachusetts would need more than 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to fully inoculate everybody in the first phase of the Baker administration's three-tiered plan, Gov. Charlie Baker said Friday.
A Thursday report from the Department of Public Health shows that, as of Tuesday, a total of 347,450 doses had been shipped to Massachusetts, and 239,147 of those doses — a little more than two-thirds — have been administered.
"We are not holding on to any vaccine. Nobody's holding on to any vaccine," Baker said after signing a new hospital signage and safety law. "We have 660,000 people in phase one. We've only received roughly 400,000 vaccine shots to begin with. Those 660,000 all need to get vaccinated twice, they need to get dosed twice to be vaccinated. You do the math, that's 1.3 million vaccine shots — excuse me, doses — to actually fully vaccinate phase one, which is supposed to end sometime in early February."
Shots became available to first responders this week, and the next portion of phase one is set to begin next week, with vaccinations starting in congregate care settings including shelters, group homes and correctional facilities.
Read the full story here — State House News Service
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President Donald Trump on Jan. 6 repeated false claims about a stolen election and urged his supporters to march on the Capitol, where Congress was certifying President-Elect Joe Biden's victory.
— CBS Local
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This article originally appeared on the Boston Patch
