Massachusetts schools step up efforts to vaccinate students

Syringes filled with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are ready to be administered to people at a public health clinic run by the City of Fall River at Bristol Community College in Fall River on February 10, 2021. Photo by Steve Klamkin WPRO News

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts school districts are stepping up their efforts to vaccinate eligible students before the end of the school year.

Nearly 300 students signed up for Worcester’s first at-school COVID-19 vaccine clinic Tuesday at Worcester Technical High School, The Telegram & Gazette reported.

Clinics are scheduled for Wednesday at North High School and South High Community School, and later this week at Doherty Memorial High, Claremont Academy and University Park Campus School, and Burncoat High.

Students who receive a vaccine this month will be able to get their second dose at another round of school clinics next month.

Some students said they got a shot to protect more vulnerable family members.

Brayden Auger, a freshman at Worcester Tech, said he wanted to protect his infant cousins. Sophomore Francisco Alvarado said his mother is immunocompromised and he decided to get a shot to protect her.

Deirdre Arvidson, a Barnstable County Public Health nurse, told the Cape Cod Times the county hopes to administer up to 1,200 first doses in area schools by early June, starting Thursday with a clinic at Monomoy Regional High School in Harwich.

Clinics are also scheduled this week for the Nauset Regional School District and Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School.

 

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