Massachusetts Diverts COVID-19 Vaccines From Hospitals To Other Vaccination Sites
BOSTON (CBS) - Massachusetts is cutting the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses given to hospitals across the state. Those shots will instead be re-directed to mass vaccination sites, pharmacies and community health centers.
Beth Israel Lahey Health and Mass General Brigham will not schedule any new appointments because of the change. Patients who have already booked appointments will still get their first and second shots.
Hospital systems have received the most vaccines so far in Massachusetts and the Department of Public Health told them they need to have given out 85-percent of those doses. State officials have said they would reallocate vaccines if they weren't being distributed fast enough.
"The Commonwealth continues to distribute more vaccines more quickly through more locations in order to vaccinate residents as quickly and efficiently as possible, but the supply delivered to Massachusetts by the federal government has remained the same for several weeks," a spokesperson for the state's COVID-19 Response Command Center told WBZ-TV in an email.
"The Commonwealth will distribute more vaccines to high throughput locations, like mass vaccination sites, retail pharmacy sites, and community health centers until more vaccines are made available by the federal government."
