On March 18, Massachusetts announced that vaccine eligibility will open to all adults ages 16 and up beginning April 19.
This announcement has come after facing great pressure from Massachusetts residents as they observe states such as Michigan and Montana initiate their general vaccine rollout. President Biden has declared May 1 as the deadline to have all American adults vaccinated, and states are currently racing to meet this demand.
April 19 will present a new challenge for the vaccine rollout process, as the large number of Massachusetts colleges and universities will be scrambling to ensure that their returning student populations have been vaccinated. Smith has not announced the details of their vaccination plan.
In a March 15 Campus Report email, the COVID-19 Incident Response Team (CIRT) stated, “Smith College has registered with the state to assist in the vaccine rollout. At this time, vaccination is not available on campus. We will notify our community immediately should that change”.
The Sophian reached out to the CIRT for a comment on Smith’s vaccination plan. On March 19, a CIRT representative responded, “We hope to have more information next week from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health”.
In the meantime, students may take initiative by pre-registering for the vaccine at one of the Massachusetts vaccination locations. On March 12, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts changed the process for pre-registering for a COVID-19 vaccination appointment. The new registration system has streamlined a way to request and schedule a vaccination appointment at any of the main Massachusetts vaccination locations.
Anyone is able to pre-register via Mass.gov (Preregistration Website for COVID-19 Vaccination Appointment). After registering, individuals will only be contacted to schedule appointments once they meet the eligibility criteria.
As of March, there are seven main vaccinations centers:
- Gillette Stadium (Foxborough)
- Fenway Park* (Boston) *will be moving to Hynes Convention Center on March 27th
- Reggie Lewis Center (Boston)
- Danvers DoubleTree Hotel (Danvers)
- Natick Mall (Natick)
- Eastfield Mall (Springfield)
- Former Circuit City (Dartmouth)
As the process for vaccinating all students through the college is unclear, it may be worthwhile to pre-register. Mass.gov states that you may cancel your registration at any time.
