Gillette Stadium to open Monday as Massachusetts’ first mass COVID vaccination site for first responders

Gillette Stadium

The Gillette Stadium logo stands above an empty field at the stadium that is home to the New England Patriots football team in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Steven Senne/AP)AP

Gillette Stadium is expected to open its doors Monday as Massachusetts’ first mass coronavirus vaccination site for first responders.

Gov. Charlie Baker announced last week the Foxborough stadium would be turned into a large-scale vaccination facility. First doses were set to be given last Thursday to staff at the site, and first responders were scheduled to get vaccinated at the location Monday.

The site was expected to administer 300 vaccines per day and then increase that number to 5,000 per day. “Potentially much bigger numbers” may follow, Baker said last Tuesday.

First responders in the commonwealth started receiving doses of the COVID-19 vaccine Jan. 11. The group is ranked third in terms of priority in Phase 1 of the state’s distribution plan. Frontline medical workers were first. Residents and staff at long-term care facilities were second.

More than 115 vaccination hubs have been set up across Massachusetts for first responders, including emergency medical technicians, firefighters and police officers.

The sites, including the one at Gillette, will initially be available to only first responders and later expand to eligible individuals as the state’s COVID-19 Command Center works through the commonwealth’s distribution plan.

The Foxborough site will be operated by CIC Health. Brigham and Women’s Hospital will serve as the medical director, and Fallon Ambulance will support the clinical staffing, according to the governor, who thanked the Kraft family last week for allowing the state to use the stadium.

Massachusetts continues to be hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with public health officials reporting 4,283 new infections of the viral respiratory infection Sunday, the same day authorities identified the first case of the highly contagious strain of COVID-19 in Massachusetts that originated in the United Kingdom.

As of Sunday, at least 448,311 Massachusetts residents have contracted coronavirus, and 13,372 people in the state have died from it since the public health crisis began.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s weekly vaccination report, which is updated around 5 p.m. every Thursday, 206,190 cumulative doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, 52,239 in the previous seven days.

Eligible vaccine recipients will be able to schedule appointments on the state’s coronavirus vaccine website and CIC Health’s website.

The COVID-19 Command Center is working to set up additional mass vaccination sites throughout the commonwealth, and more details will be available soon, authorities said.

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