LYNN — The COVID-19 vaccine clinic at Lynn Tech will begin to ramp down its operations at the end of the month, the city and Lynn Community Health Center (LHCH) announced Thursday. Saturday, June 26 will be the last first-dose session offered at the clinic. There will be second-dose-only clinics offered at that location every Thursday from 1 to 8 p.m. beginning July 1 and continuing for the rest of the month. “I am incredibly proud of and thankful for our teams from the City of Lynn and Lynn Community Health Center for their outstanding efforts to establish and operate the Lynn Tech vaccination site,” said Mayor Thomas M. McGee. “There are many people behind the scenes and on the front lines on site that stepped up and worked tirelessly to ensure that the process was accessible and as smooth as possible for our community as they became eligible to receive the vaccine.” In addition to the Lynn Tech site, the city worked with other community health organizations to offer mobile vaccine clinics at places of worship, businesses, community organizations and flag-raising events. As of June 16, 59 percent of Lynn residents have received at least one shot of their COVID-19 vaccine and 51 percent are fully vaccinated. During the height of the vaccination rollout, the Lynn Tech vaccination site was administering over 1,200 vaccines a day and more than 6,000 per week. To date, there have been 83,909 vaccine shots administered and 42,801 people have been fully vaccinated through the clinic and the mobile vaccination efforts. “The close of the Lynn Tech site is a milestone for us. I am extremely proud of our health center staff for their immense work to quickly develop and operate the Lynn Tech vaccination site,” said LCHC Chief Executive Officer Dr. Kiame Mahaniah. “As a health center, we look forward to this next phase of our vaccine rollout as we continue to provide both vaccinations and vaccine education to our neighbors.” ...

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. ...

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.

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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. ...

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. ...

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.” ...