The town’s supply of the COVID-19 vaccine is running low, and the government is prioritizing its most vulnerable residents, said Town Manager Scott Crabtree at Tuesday night’s Board of Selectmen meeting.
“There’s 300 or 320 million people in the United States and there’s not even close to that number in vaccines available,” Crabtree said. “We have an extremely, extremely small amount of the vaccine that we have available that we were provided and we’ve been notified we will not be provided any additional vaccines.”
Crabtree confirmed that the town has not been given access to the state’s online vaccine scheduling system, meaning that residents will have to call the Health Department to schedule a vaccination with the town. He said that they had already received hundreds of calls, and were prioritizing residents aged 75 and over to give the remainder of the vaccine supply.
All residents who have already received their first dose of the vaccine through the town will be able to receive the second dose as well.
The Health Department is making a master list of callers searching for a vaccine and reaching out when they are available. They will continue to do so through next week.
“I assume we’ll be out of vaccines by then,” Crabtree said.
Crabtree encouraged residents to continue to try to schedule a vaccine through one of the state’s mass vaccination sites, the nearest of which is the DoubleTree Hotel in Danvers, although he acknowledged the difficulty that many have had in making an appointment.
Members of the board expressed disappointment in the state’s rollout, and voted to write a letter to the governor’s office requesting that they consider establishing a new mass vaccination site in or near Saugus, because of its convenient location for many North Shore residents.
“Route 1: you don’t get much better access than that,” said Selectman Jeff Cicolini.
Some members suggested reaching out to Simon, the operator of Square One Mall, to see if the mall could be used as a location, because of its large number of vacant spaces and parking. The mall is currently being used to offer COVID testing.
“We represent Saugus, and we have to do what we can to help our own citizens,” said Selectwoman Corinne Riley.
