BOSTON (SHNS) – Gov. Charlie Baker’s announcement last week that a limited number of fans will be allowed to return to arenas and ballparks later this month means Red Sox fans will be in the Fenway Park grandstand for Opening Day on April 1, but it also means the ballpark might have to stop serving as a mass vaccination site.
Boston’s Chief of Health and Human Services Marty Martinez has said he expects the mass vaccination site will have to move as games begin and fans are allowed to attend and Baker said Wednesday that his administration is talking to the Red Sox about the situation now.
“I think we’ll have more to say about that shortly, but the bottom line is everybody who needs a second dose is going to get a second dose,” Baker said. “And if we need to move the way we handle first dosing and second dosing going forward, we’ll find another place in the city to do it.”
The Red Sox said in the media notes for Wednesday’s spring training game that they “expect Fenway Park to continue to operate as a mass vaccination site beyond the start of the regular season.”
The team said it is working closely with the state and CIC Health “to develop revised operating plans as necessary for the month of April and beyond that are well-coordinated with the Red Sox game schedule.”
Before the vaccination site opened, a team official said the Sox will “make it work” when the baseball season collides with the vaccination effort.
So far, the team said, more than 21,000 vaccinations have been administered at what John Updike famously called “a lyric little bandbox of a ballpark.”
