State Announces Vaccine Appointment Booking Now Available for Certain Groups

BOSTON — The Baker-Polito administration announced that individuals age 65 and over and those with two or more certain medical conditions, including asthma, can visit www.mass.gov/covidvaccine to start booking an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccine. With this announcement, almost 1 million individuals are newly eligible for the vaccine.

Due to extremely high demand for appointments and limited vaccine supply, it could take more than a month for all eligible individuals to secure an available appointment, unless federal supply significantly increases. Recently, Massachusetts has been receiving approximately 110,000 first doses per week from the federal government. Residents are encouraged to keep checking the website as appointments are added on a rolling basis.

Newly eligible groups include individuals 65 and over, including residents and staff of low-income and affordable public and private senior housing, and individuals age 16 and older with two or more of the following medical conditions: asthma (moderate to severe), cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Down syndrome, heart conditions (such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies), immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant, obesity and severe obesity (body mass index of 30 or higher), pregnancy, sickle-cell disease, smoking, and type-2 diabetes mellitus.

Details for booking appointments can be found via the COVID-19 Vaccine Finder, which enables residents to search for a vaccination location and view appointment availability before scheduling. The tool can be accessed via the state’s vaccination website at www.mass.gov/covidvaccine or directly at vaxfinder.mass.gov.

Individuals who are unable to access appointments via the internet can call 211 and follow the prompts for vaccine appointments.