Boston is rolling out a pilot version of the city’s mobile coronavirus vaccine clinic on Friday, starting at the MLK Building in Roxbury.
The mobile clinic, which isn’t on a van or a bus like one might think, consists of EMTs and paramedics who will set up sites inside whichever building they’re stationed at for the day.
Doors for the initial site, located at 280 MLK Jr. Blvd in Roxbury, will open at 10 a.m., according to the city.
Health Chief Marty Martinez offered an outline of what this new partnership program with Boston EMS will look like at a Feb. 25 press conference.
“It’s complicated,” Martinez said. “You have to have doses, you have to be able to store them, you have to be able to make sure that you have a pharmacist that can do the leg work and make sure that you have someone who can monitor folks. For those folks who’ve been vaccinated, you know you wait 15 to 30 minutes to be observed and we need to make sure that can happen.”
But he said expanding that on-site access to the vaccine is critical.
The mobile clinics will likely first be targeted toward Boston Housing Authority buildings, which houses older adults and people with disabilities, both groups who recently became eligible for the vaccine, according to Martinez.
As more doses are available and more people become eligible for them, he said the city will look to expand the program. With spring weather in the near future, Martinez said officials are also considering holding outdoor pop-up vaccination sites at parks and courtyards throughout Boston.
The mobile clinics would support the roughly 20 vaccination sites scattered across the city.
Some local community health centers are also exploring mobile options, which Martinez said the city would be “eager to help” with.
“We also want to create smaller, one-day sort of places, and the mobile team is going to be a huge part of that,” he added.
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