Just finished a meeting with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and here is the latest info on the vaccine rollout:

Beginning February 1st, residents age 75 and older are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in Massachusetts. Appointments became available yesterday for online booking at www.mass.gov/COVIDVaccine. Right now and until more vaccines are readily available, there is a very high demand for a limited number of appointments through the online platform.

Early next week the website will be revised and simplified and they will also offer a telephone number to schedule appointments. And they will continue to add sites and expect to increase capacity to 305,000 doses each week by mid-February. The current allocation from the federal government is 86,000 doses per week, so we are hoping for a larger allocation to match our capacity.

Additional appointments will be added to the website regularly, with the most availability at mass vaccination sites. Some smaller sites, like CVS Health, will post a smaller number of new appointments daily.More mass vaccination sites will be announced soon in other locations. On Wednesday, 10,000 appointments were posted in Springfield and Danvers and were filled within hours. Today, Springfield and Danvers made another 15,000 appointments available, Gillette Stadium and Fenway Park posted a total of 20,000 appointments this morning.

CVS Health will post 1,152 new appointments daily across their 8 sites, for a total of 8,000 per week. CVS Health is posting new appointments online daily. In total, over 35,000 new appointments are live over the course of the day for appointments in the next 7 days.

Currently, the mass vaccination sites are posting large batches of appointments once a week (on Thursdays) for the next 7 days. The number of appointments is based on the available number of doses allocated from the federal government to ensure every appointment is fulfilled with a dose. The mass vaccination sites plan to increase the number of appointments posted weekly in the coming weeks based on the federal allocation of vaccines shipped to Massachusetts. Residents are encouraged to check mass vaccination sites weekly for the most number of appointments. It could take weeks for eligible residents to secure an appointment based on availability and supply.

Steps to book an appointment online:

1. Visit www.mass.gov/CovidVaccineMap and click on the map.

2. Select a location, schedule an appointment online

3. Have your important information with you, such as your insurance card

4. Fill out the self-attestation form, which will need to be presented at your appointment.

Appointments are also available in other locations, including some pharmacies and community health centers. Some of these sites will post appointments more frequently, in some cases daily. Please check www.mass.gov/covidvaccinemap frequently for open appointments. These sites are smaller and will have fewer available appointments on a weekly basis.

You can view the Commonwealth’s COVID-19 dashboard by clicking here.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has a Frequently Asked Questions site that is continually updated as they receive new questions. Access the FAQs here: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-vaccine-frequently-asked-questions

If you have other questions, they can be submitted to COVID-19-Vaccine-Plan-MA@mass.gov