Fenway Park To Reopen As Vaccination Site For COVID-19 Boosters

BOSTON — As coronavirus cases surge throughout Massachusetts, Fenway Park will reopen as a COVID-19 vaccination site as soon as January in an effort to get more people vaccinated and boosted.

"The Red Sox are working with the Baker-Polito Administration and the City of Boston to finalize plans to make boosters available to Massachusetts residents at Fenway Park beginning in January," Red Sox spokeswoman Zineb Curran wrote in an email.

On Monday, Gov. Charlie Baker said he has no plans to reissue a state-wide mask mandate and announced a plan to have the state distribute 2 million rapid at-home tests to the 102 communities hit the hardest by COVID-19.

Baker added that he believes getting vaccinated and boosted is the best way to fight the current surge in cases and keep people out of already overcrowded hospitals.

"If the unvaccinated got vaccinated, it would drop our hospitalizations by 50%," Baker said. "There were over 120,000 people in the hospital with COVID at this time last year, with very similar case counts nationwide this year, there's 60,000."

More than 55,000 people were vaccinated at Fenway Park last year before the vaccine site moved to the Hynes Convention Center for the baseball season. The vaccine site ran from Jan. 25 to March 27, 2021.

"We are grateful for the leadership of Governor Baker, Lt. Governor Polito, and Mayor Wu on this vital service for our community and are proud to be able to lend our ballpark to help with this important effort," Curran said.

More on Patch

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• Temporary Indoor Mask, Vaccine Rules Announced For Rhode Island
• Red Sox Bump Vaccine Site From Fenway | Patch PM
• A First Look Inside Fenway Park's Mass COVID Vaccine Center