WEST BRIDGEWATER, Mass. — Residents will be able to register in advance for COVID-19 vaccine appointments beginning Friday and four days are being set aside specifically for educators.
The new registration site is applicable only to the seven mass vaccination sites for now and is being supported through a partnership with Google Cloud. It is expected to be online by midmorning on Friday.
"The preregistration system is designed to make it easier for residents to secure an available appointment, and will soon replace the current process of large numbers of appointments being posted online on Thursday mornings," Gov. Charlie Baker said on Wednesday. "People should keep in mind that it will probably still take several weeks for eligible residents to be notified that there is an appointment available for them, because we're still receiving a real limited federal supply of vaccine doses to support our efforts here in Massachusetts."
Registration can take place over the website or by calling 211 and will be notified within 24 hours once an appointment is available. They will also be able to get weekly updates.
This Thursday will be the last day that large numbers of appointments will be posted although residents will still be able to sign up at local or pharmacy sites as vaccines are available.
"The process will hopefully ease some of the anxiety and the burden folks have been experiencing trying to secure an appointment because of the constraints apply a vaccine," said Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito.
Workers in the K-12 education system and child care workers can sign up for appointments on three Saturdays — March 27, April 3, April 10 — and Sunday, April 11. These are only available, at this point, at the mass vaccination sites, the closest of which is the Eastfield Mall in Springfield.
The state is pushing for all or most students to start heading back into classrooms beginning in April, an effort supported by the federal government.
More than 750,000 residents have been fully vaccinated since late December and 2.2 million doses overall have been administered. Baker said the state has the capacity to significantly increase that number but the bottleneck is access to vaccines through the federal government.
The main issue has been production — the now three main vaccine suppliers have not been able to keep up with demand. On Wednesday, the Biden administration committed to purchasing another 100 million of the single-dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
"We heard in December that we would have more supply than we had demand by February, and then we heard in January we would have more supply than we would have demand by March. And then we heard J&J and Pfizer and Moderna make commitments to Congress about where they were going to be in March, and we're basically being told that between now and the end of March we shouldn't expect any additional supply," the governor said. "And we will in April have more supply than we have demand. If we ever get to that point."
Baker described it as a race against time in case of a third surge.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders said officials were informed by the federal government on Tuesday night that there would be no additional new doses until the end of March.
The governor made his comments during a tour of an N95 mask manufacturing facility operated by Shawmut Corp. and Fallon Co. on the anniversary of his issuance of emergency orders that basically shut down the state because of the pandemic..
Shawmut Corp. CEO James Wyner said their plans were the mass production of high-quality and cost-effective personal protective equipment that would make the West Bridgewater facility one of the largest producers in North America.
"We expect to have 500 people employed here by the end of this year, or first quarter of next year," he said. "Those are good paying, manufacturing jobs with upward mobility attached to them. ... Our vision here is to serve as many frontline health-care workers, clinics, hospitals, businesses institutions with these masks.
"The need is not just COVID based. The need is going to continue afterwards. If we just supply a small portion of what's currently being imported that there'll be a robust industry for us and others here."
Baker again reminded residents that the vaccine was a light at the end of the tunnel but it was critical to continue following masking, sanitation and distancing guidelines since it is not known if vaccinated people can still transmit the virus.
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Main & Mill: A Vibrant New Restaurant on Main Street
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — You can now enjoy another eatery on Main Street by well-known restaurant siblings Colleen and Sean Taylor.
Their restaurant Main & Mill opened for the first time Tuesday, bringing their vision of creating something vibrant and new to downtown North Adams.
"We have created Main & Mill to be part of our day. It's very seasonal ingredients, thoughtful cooking, beauty, beautiful presentation and dishes. And we really wanted to be part of the community, the downtown area, and start a vibrant area on this end, which has been shuttered for a while," said Colleen.
The building is owned by Ginko on Main Street LLC, which has granted 20 years exclusive possession of the property to Latent Builds as the developer. Jack and Suzy Wadsworth, behind Ginko, are development partners with Karla Rothstein and Salvatore Perry of Latent.
The bank closed in early 2021 and was purchased by Ginko late that year. Plans for the property unveiled three years ago envisioned a restaurant, retail, a park and rooftop bar.
Colleen saw potential and said she initially wanted the building when it first went up for sale. Being good friends with Rothstein and Perry, she helped them design the kitchen and the bar before learning in March that she could lease it as a restaurant space, something she told them would be a great idea.
She said one of the most important things about the restaurant was the collaboration between Rothstein, Perry, and the Wadsworths, who put a lot of time and energy into the building.
"If Sean and I had done it, we would not be able to do what the collaboration supported. The collaboration of the three of us being able to really have that kind of money to put in down here. The design that the architecture firm that Carla and Sal own is stunning," she said. "The time and effort, everyone came together to do this in a really trusting manner."
The two wanted the restaurant to be an all-day venture, so people could eat at any point throughout the day, all week long.
"We wanted it to be open for coffee and socialization in the morning where people can meet, have their cup of coffee, have a quiche, a vegetarian quiche, or croissant or yogurt. Something intentional with their coffee," she said. "Then move into a lunchtime for the downtown business or anybody, and then go into supper, dinner, with drinks later into the evening. So have it really be open all day long, so that there wasn't a void on any particular day."
They also wanted to do something different than the other restaurants they owned.
"We didn't want to mimic any other restaurant in town. We wanted to bring something that was inspiring, something that had some familiar things that people would see, and other things that we would bring to them for them to experience," she said.
As a woman business owner, Colleen said she wanted to bring a female chef into the kitchen.
Colleen brought on Chef Anna DeRose, who she said puts twists on a lot of her dishes.
"So we have a creme brulee, but our creme brulee is topped with marshmallow," she said. "Our creme brulee is like almost two desserts in one. It's a s'mores creme brulee. So you could have a s'mores, and you could have a creme brulee - but when you put both of them together, fireworks go off."
Jake Eberwein showed the committee sections of the nbess.org website, including the resources page, which will be key to keeping residents informed about the study’s findings and collecting information from those residents. click for more
The planes were paper, the buildings cardboard and Main Street was a hallway at Colegrove Park Elementary School, but the setup represented nearly two weeks of creative research and design by the pupils in the public schools' 21st Century Summer Program.
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