GREENFIELD — The city has vaccinated about 2,000 people so far, including 450 on Feb. 13 — the most yet in one day — and the mayor’s chief of staff said it will continue its efforts as long as it receives the vaccine from the state.
“We’re prepared to do this for as long as we need to,” said Danielle Letourneau-Therrien, chief of staff to Mayor Roxann Wedegartner. “We’re so proud of what we’ve been able to do so far.”
Letourneau-Therrien said everything is “going great” at the COVID-19 vaccination site, the John Zon Community Center on Pleasant Street. She said the city is finishing second doses to first responders and essential personnel from Phase 1 of the vaccine distribution plan. At the same time, it began giving first doses last week and this week to people who are eligible in the first tier of Phase 2: those who are 75 years old and older.
As per Gov. Charlie Baker’s announcement on Wednesday, the Greenfield site will begin vaccinating people 65 years old and older and people who have two or more eligible medical conditions on Thursday.
“We also started vaccinating medical workers and health care workers, like CNAs (certified nursing assistants), who didn’t get the first dose last month,” she said. “We added some hours and slots to make sure we could do it.”
Letourneau-Therrien said she was “amazed and proud” to hear the city had vaccinated 450 people on Feb. 13.
“We’ve done what we’ve had to do,” she said. “We’ve pivoted quickly when we’ve had to. On Feb. 24, we will be open to the public as a standing, permanent clinic that will be open three days a week.”
She said the city hasn’t received enough Moderna vaccines to date to vaccinate those 75 years and older as well as all of their caregivers, but will do so if it has enough doses as time goes on. The governor announced last week that caregivers will be eligible if there are enough vaccines.
“I just keep thinking about the fact that a year ago we had a brand new mayor, a pandemic was on its way and there were threats of shutdowns. Our fire chief, who is also our director of emergency management, was in the middle of a huge project to build a new fire station and a temporary one, and our health director was new and decided to leave during the pandemic,” Letourneau-Therrien recalled. “Greenfield could have said, ‘We can’t handle this. We’ll leave it to the county and state,’ but we didn’t. Everyone stepped up.”
She said Greenfield has done such a good job — from opening the Emergency Operations Center early on in the pandemic, to providing personal protective equipment to first responders and businesses, to conducting contact tracing — that other towns are looking to the city to find out what it’s doing and what they can learn from Greenfield.
“We’ve got other town leaders coming and watching us, watching what we’re doing, so they can replicate it,” she said. “We tell them we practiced and built up to this.”
For information on eligibility for the vaccine, visit bit.ly/3qteNnN. For information on how to prepare for your vaccine appointment, visit bit.ly/3pzsv7H.
To schedule an appointment for a vaccine at the John Zon Community Center, visit bit.ly/3s0Euwo. With questions, call Greenfield Health Department at 413-775-6411.
■Thursday, Feb. 18, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.: 35 available
■Friday, Feb. 19, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.: 70 available
■Wednesday, Feb. 24, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.: 24 available
■Friday, Feb. 26, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.: 74 available
■Saturday, Feb. 27, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.: 73 available
■Tuesday, March 2, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.: 84 available
■Wednesday, March 3, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.: 183 available
■Friday, March 5, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.: 165 available
■Wednesday, March 10, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.: 190 available
■Friday, March 12, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.: 189 available
■Saturday, March 13, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.: 189 available
Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-9591 or afritz@recorder.com.