Not one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine went to waste last weekend at the second City of Everett and Cataldo Ambulance vaccination clinic in the former Pope John High School.
The effort was able to vaccinate 386 seniors that were 75 and over, as well as the new categories of those 65 and over, having two co-morbidities or are living in senior congregate homes.
“On Saturday we had another successful COVID-19 vaccine clinic at Pope John,” said the mayor. “The Everett Board of Health successfully vaccinated 386 eligible individuals with the assistance of Cataldo…We have another clinic scheduled for this Saturday Feb 27. These appointments are all booked, but we may be opening up additional spots.
“The City will continue these clinics as long as the State provides us with the medication/doses,” said the mayor. “We are working with the Everett Housing Authority to be able to vaccinate their residents soon. I will continue to advocate for our teachers to be moved up in the priority list.”
Communications Director Deanna Devaney said they will be continuing the clinics next weekend, and have a goal of getting translation in place.
“Our next goal is to work with the state to get interpreters at the clinics,” she said. “This week we had all the information translated so people who don’t speak English have the information they need.”
She said they plan to translate into Spanish, Portuguese and Haitian Kreyol.
She also said the site has become popular because it’s familiar and close to home.
“We do find it’s a familiar site for Everett residents and they’re more apt to go there than to travel to another area, especially with the vaccine being so unknown to a lot of people,” she said.
Devaney added that the odd number of 386 didn’t mean doses went to waste. She said some vials had 11 doses and that accounted for the uneven number, and that no doses last Saturday went to waste at the clinic.
Councilor Michael McLaughlin said the clinic is very well-run and he hopes the state will continue to provide the quantities of vaccine to the City that they have been.
“It has been a true game-changer for our community and I hope that Governor Baker will see the direct impact it has had on our residents and allow us to be a model community of success in the fight against COVID-19 to continue to administer the vaccine in our community so that our one-on-one relationships encourage our residents to feel comfortable in taking this vaccine,” he said. “We need and will continue pushing on the Baker Administration to help us get our teachers and front-line workers also vaccinated quickly. We have listened to the Governor for a year now, I hope he will return the same respect and now offer support to local leaders who know our communities best.”
Everett was identified early last week as one of 20 communities to get vaccine resource priority – with an informational campaign to be launched and a $1 million allocation to help obtain vaccine in those communities.
“We look forward to having them provide resources to us like boots on the ground to get word out about the vaccine,” said Devaney. “We have been impacted, but our numbers are good right now.”