Berkshire Vaccine Collaborative Scaling Down Clinics
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — As the state reopens, Berkshire Vaccine Collaborative is shifting its vaccination model to make receiving the shot more convenient and accessible.
The collaborative has announced plans to scale down its three largest COVID-19 vaccine clinic sites in Great Barrington, North Adams and Pittsfield gradually over the next month and offer pop-up clinics and vaccination at testing sites.
"This is really the next phase vaccination, these large clinics were stood up so that we could quickly and efficiently vaccinate as many people as possible and they've been incredibly successful," Executive Director of Communications, Planning and Development Jennifer Vrabel said.
"And we're finding that we've now reached a critical mass where most of the people who are eligible and who wanted to get really actively engaged in the process, have come out and gotten it at the large clinics, and at the height, we could vaccinate with all of our volunteers, around 1,000 people a day, and now, we've got six-hour clinic blocks, and 100 people coming in. So we're shifting to this model have more availability more days and more consistent times by offering vaccination at our testing centers."
The North Adams clinic, for example, did close to 2,000 people in one day a few weeks ago; on Thursday, it opened early and encouraged anyone who wanted to to come in and for those who had registered appointments, to come in early as well.
The collaborative will offer first doses through scheduled and walk-in appoints at all clinics until Thursday, May 27. After that, the clinic will not administer first dose appointments but will continue to provide second doses until late June.
Beginning in June, the collaborative will set up small pop-up clinics in community locations where clusters of individuals have not been vaccinated and vaccination will be available every day of the week from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Pittsfield COVID-19 testing center at 505 East St.
North Adams will have similar services next week and Great Barrington testing centers will soon provide walk-in service.
As of May 13, data from the commonwealth of Massachusetts indicated that nearly 60 percent of Berkshire County residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 43 percent have been fully vaccinated. The number of doses of vaccine administered stands at 7,344,364 and 3,330,308 people are now fully vaccinated in Massachusetts, which has a population of about 7 million. Nationwide, the number of total doses is 278,872,323.
In a press release, Darlene Rodowicz, executive vice president of Berkshire Health Systems, thanked the entities that made the rapid vaccination possible.
"We are incredibly proud of the work that the Berkshire Vaccine Collaborative has done to vaccinate tens of thousands of people in our community," she wrote.
"This collaboration between the Berkshire County Boards of Health Association, Berkshire Health Systems, Community Health Programs, [Northern Berkshire] EMS, the City of Pittsfield, and our county's public health nurses has been incredibly effective. At the height of demand, we were able to vaccinate more than 1,000 people per day."
Rodowicz said an increased vaccine supply and a decline in demand has warranted a change in strategy, which brought the collaborative to adopt pop-up clinics and vaccinations at the testing centers.
This model provides convenience to those who have tight schedules and expands access to the whole community.
"The goal is really to get folks that are in our community protected and try to keep the community safe as we reopen," Vrabel added.
Any residents who have not received their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine when it was originally scheduled can receive their second dose at any upcoming clinic.
Rodowicz emphasized that they want to make sure every person who wants a vaccine has the opportunity to be fully vaccinated and that it is not too late to get a second dose.
Berkshire Theatre Group has offered an incentive in the form of free tickets to the first 500 people who get their first dose at Berkshire Vaccine Collaborative clinics this week. The vouchers are available on a first-come, first-serve basis in Great Barrington, North Adams and Pittsfield clinics and will be redeemable for two free tickets to the PTG production of "White Christmas" at The Colonial Theatre this holiday season.
The Berkshire Vaccine Collaborative and the Berkshire Eagle will also present a virtual event "Building Community Immunity" on May 27 at 1 p.m. on Pittsfield Community Television and through its Facebook page. The panel discussion will include local health leaders and offer the latest vaccine news as well as discussing reasons why residents may still be hesitant to get the shot.
For the most recent information about vaccination efforts in the Berkshires, visit www.GetVaccinatedBerkshires.org.
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