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COVID-19 related articles and news

A public-private partnership to expand vaccination infrastructure and build capacity at community health centers, including support for community health workers to promote vaccine confidence and acceptance among patients and community members.

https://www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-vaccine-equity-initiative-investment-in-community-health-centers

LYNN — Congressman Seth Moulton visited the Lynn Tech vaccination site on Thursday afternoon to thank frontline workers and learn more about how the clinic is working to combat vaccine hesitancy. Moulton toured the site with Lynn Community Health Center’s (LCHC) Chief Operating Officer Kimberly Eng and Nurse Practitioner Marita Gove, where they updated him on their efforts within the community. According to Eng, the site is currently vaccinating about 2,500 people per week, as opposed to the almost 7,000 when it was at its peak. The vaccine rollout is slowing around the state, and Eng said the Lynn Tech site will close around the end of June. At that time, vaccines will be available at Lynn Community Health Center and City Hall. The Lynn Community Health Center partnered with the city’s Department of Public Health to create the Lynn Tech clinic with the goal of being at the forefront of community vaccination efforts. Mayor Thomas M. McGee told Moulton that this partnership, along with assistance from the Fire Department and National Guard, has allowed the clinic to successfully distribute vaccines to thousands of residents. Moulton praised the partnership and the efforts of everyone involved in making the vaccination site successful. “Thank you all for everything you’ve been doing,” Moulton said. ...

https://www.itemlive.com/2021/06/03/congressman-moulton-visits-lynn-tech-vaccine-clinic/

BOSTON — Mass vaccination sites across the state are shutting down over the next several weeks as the state shifts to a more targeted strategy.

The Baker administration said it’s now focused on ramping up community-based vaccine efforts to reach remaining unvaccinated populations. The Hynes Convention Center is among five mass vaccination sites that will be closing later this month. The two others will be shutting down in early July.

Boston 25 News spoke with chief medical officers at two community health centers who said their work on the ground at the local level won’t be stopping all summer long.

“The next phase of this in some ways is a lot more organizational operational work,” said Dr. Geoffrey Pechinsky, the chief medical officer at the Lynn Community Health Center.

As the state ramps down its vaccine operation, communities across Massachusetts are pivoting tactics to connect with local residents who haven’t been vaccinated yet.

Dr. Pechinsky said the focus now is getting to people who either didn’t have access to get to mass vaccination sites or may still be hesitant.

...

https://www.boston25news.com/news/health/vaccination-efforts-turn-local-communities-with-mass-sites-close/LS5NQSCWTJFD7OAB55NW53TYD4/

LYNN — City officials and local health experts urged residents to get vaccinated Wednesday night during a virtual COVID-19 town hall, saying that the benefits outweigh the risks. The town hall featured a roundtable discussion — moderated by Lynn Community Television’s Mukala Kabongo — that included Mayor Thomas M. McGee, Public Health Director Michele Desmarais, Salem Hospital doctors Miriam Neuman and Barbara Lambl, and Dr. Hanna Haptu and family nurse practitioner Marita Gove of Lynn Community Health Center. McGee kicked off the event by stressing the importance of getting the COVID-19 vaccine to contribute to obtaining herd immunity, an ever-changing target that health experts believe will lead to a return to some type of normalcy. McGee said the Lynn Tech vaccination site is open to all Massachuestts residents and is now servicing walk-ins as well. “We’ve had great success thus far with our vaccination efforts with so many people coming together to make it work,” McGee said. According to McGee, state data shows that, as of April 29, 31,381 Lynn residents are fully vaccinated and 13,282 are partially vaccinated. He said, overall, about 44 percent of the Lynn population has received their first dose. Although the number of vaccinations continues to increase, McGee said they are still seeing positive cases of COVID-19 in the community. Dr. Neuman, Salem Hospital’s chair of radiology, encouraged people to get tested and to get the vaccine, saying the vaccines are up to 95 percent effective. She said that although the effectiveness is not 100 percent, the vaccine will prevent hospitalization and death, leaving people with mild symptoms if infected. ...

https://www.itemlive.com/2021/05/05/lynn-mayor-mcgee-urges-residents-to-get-vaccinated/

LYNN — The City of Lynn is partnering with Mass General Brigham-Salem Hospital and Lynn Community Health Center to host two COVID-19 virtual Town Halls — in English and in Spanish — to provide residents with information and to answer questions related to the COVID-19 vaccine and updated state health and safety protocols. The Town Hall in English will take place on Wednesday, May 6 at 6:30 p.m. and the Spanish Town Hall will take place on Thursday, May 6 at 6:30 p.m. Both Town Halls will be produced by Archipelago Strategies Group (ASG) through the state’s Equity Initiative. Each Town Hall will be broadcast as a Zoom webinar and will include panelists from the city, Mass General Brigham-Salem Hospital and the Lynn Community Health Center. The English Town Hall will be hosted by Mukala Kabongo of Lynn Community Television and the Spanish Town Hall will be hosted by Carolina Trujillo of Periódico La Voz, which is published by Essex Media Group, the company that owns The Item. ...

https://www.itemlive.com/2021/04/29/lynn-will-host-an-english-and-spanish-virtual-town-hall-on-covid-updates/

LYNN — The city of Lynn has created a call center to assist Lynn and Nahant residents with scheduling COVID-19 vaccine appointments at the Lynn Tech vaccination site. The call center opened its lines last Monday and has received about 100 calls per business day since. The center is open on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. To schedule an appointment, call 781-595-7747. With about 12 part-time employees working remotely, the city has been able to use a $70,000 grant from Massachusetts General Brigham (MGB) to form the call center and provide onboarding and employee training. Mayor Thomas M. McGee thanked MGB for partnering with Lynn and providing funding. “It is estimated that one out of every three Lynn residents do not have easy access to the internet, which has only been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” McGee said. “This call center is staffed by 12 local people — some of whom can communicate in both English and Spanish — tasked with ensuring those residents who do not have technology readily available to them are able to easily schedule a vaccine appointment.” Kimberly Eng, the chief operating officer at Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC), said LCHC is thrilled to have launched this call center specifically to schedule appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations. “As this phone number gets out into our local groups and neighborhoods, our hope is to continue ensuring access to the communities of Lynn and Nahant,” she said. “We are proud to be partnered with the city of Lynn and MGB Salem to provide this service.” ...

https://www.itemlive.com/2021/04/21/lynn-designates-call-center-to-aid-scheduling-covid-19-vaccine-appointments/

MA Almost Half Way to Governor’s Vaccination Goal But a Big Challenge Lies Ahead

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/04/18/metro/massachusetts-is-almost-halfway-governors-vaccination-goal-big-challenge-lies-ahead/

LYNN — The City of Lynn Department of Public Health, Lynn Community Health Center (LHCH) and Mass General Brigham (MGB) will host a joint, mobile COVID-19 vaccination operation, the city announced Friday. Lynn Public Health Director Michele Desmarais said the program’s goal is to meet people where they are in order to reduce barriers to vaccination in hard-to-reach communities. “I am very proud of the incredible work done by our Department of Public Health staff to vaccinate so many members of our community to date,” Desmarais said. “Offering mobile vaccine clinics creates a more comfortable and accessible environment for people to get vaccinated.” The operation has been piloted over the last two weeks with clinics at a handful of businesses and places of worship for eligible populations based on the state’s guidelines, a press release from City Hall said. These efforts will launch officially on Monday as Massachusetts vaccine eligibility expands to all people ages 16 and up. “Our goal has always been to make vaccines as accessible as possible with a multi-pronged team approach by opening up the Lynn Tech vaccination site, which is up to 6,000 vaccinations a week, and conducting designated vaccine clinics at our senior and affordable housing buildings and for our first responders, educators, and essential workers,” said Mayor Thomas M. McGee. “We also vaccinated a number of our homebound residents before the state launched their homebound program.” State data shows that as of April 13, 24,618 Lynn residents are fully vaccinated and 13,349 are partially vaccinated. Overall, 38 percent of Lynn’s population has received their first dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. “We are proud to work with the Health Center and the City of Lynn on a comprehensive mobile vaccination strategy and have deployed a robust team of employees to help assist with community vaccination efforts,”said Christine Valdes, M.D., a family medicine physician at North Shore Physicians Group and Medical Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Salem Hospital, a member of Mass General Brigham. “Our community Care Team includes staff from across our system with a range of skill sets and language capabilities who are dedicated to vaccinating the most vulnerable residents of Lynn.” ...

https://www.itemlive.com/2021/04/16/city-of-lynn-and-mass-general-brigham-announce-mobile-covid-19-vaccination-partnership/

LYNN — Marita Gove, the nurse practitioner at the Lynn Community Health Center coordinating the COVID-19 vaccine distribution at Lynn Tech and elsewhere, is concerned about reports of blood clots connected with the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine. It’s not so much that people will get blood clots, because they are extremely rare thus far. It’s more because of what those reports will mean to people who have been reluctant to get on board with the coronavirus vaccine as it is. “About six people out of the 6.8 million who have taken it have had blood clots,” said Gove. “I was reading the New York Times today and saw an article that said that roughly 125 people per million, between the ages of 18 and 48, have died from COVID. “So, you’re talking about one out of a million people who have had blood clots, while 125 out of a million die from COVID. That’s the message we are trying to get across.” All six victims are women between the ages of 18 and 48, according to reports. One woman from Virginia died and a second woman from Nebraska was hospitalized in serious condition. Because of the reports of blood clots, national federal health agencies Tuesday called for a temporary halt in distribution of the J&J vaccine. The temporary halt in distributing the vaccine to Massachusetts has had its largest impact on the Lynn Community Health Center’s mobile outreach clinics, Gove said. “It’s better for us to give the J&J vaccine, where it’s only one dose, to the people we’re reaching out to, like when we go to churches or other sites,” she said. “If we’re only giving them one dose, that means we don’t have to worry about scheduling them for their second dose, and making sure they get there.” However, Gove doesn’t see any interruption in administering vaccination shots. “It’s more work on our part,” she said, “but we’re keeping up. Right now, we have a lot. Last week, we gave 6,000 shots at Lynn Tech. Now, you know that’s going to dwindle down as more and more people get vaccinated.” ...

https://www.itemlive.com/2021/04/15/lynn-health-center-copes-with-jj-vaccine-issue/

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