FALL RIVER The last football game Jess Read went to was a matchup between two high school teams.
The next football game she’ll be attending will be Sunday night’s Super Bowl LV in Tampa.
“I’ve never been to a professional football game,” Read, 23, said.
The Charlton Memorial Hospital registered nurse was one of two RNs randomly selected from a pool of nurses and health care workers who work for the Southcoast Health hospital network, which also includes St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford and Tobey Hospital in Wareham.
Read and her Charlton RN colleague Kyla Sears are among 76 vaccinated healthcare workers from the six New England states who will be flying to Tampa Sunday morning from Logan International Airport in Boston, courtesy of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
This story has been updated to reflect that the clinic will now open Wednesday, Feb. 10. The story was also updated to clarify the procedure for signing up to receive a vaccine through Southcoast Health.
A long-awaited covid-19 vaccination site will be opened in Wareham at the Gleason Family YMCA next week. Southcoast Health announced on Feb. 2 that it will begin vaccinating anyone eligible for the vaccine starting Wednesday, Feb. 10.
The clinic will begin by serving any nearby residents aged 75 or older even if they do not have a Southcoast Health primary care physician and will expand vaccine eligibility to more people over time, per state guidance.
FALL RIVER Not every Phase 2 vaccination site in Fall River will be rolling into action on Monday.
Both CVS on President Avenue and Walgreens on Plymouth Avenue will begin administering COVID-19 vaccines on that first day of Phase 2, as part of the commonwealth’s long-term vaccination program.
But that’s not the case for the new regional inoculation site on the campus of Bristol Community College.
That site won’t swing into action until Wednesday, according to Elaina Pevide, spokeswoman for Mayor Paul Coogan.
And Pevide said the regional site on Elsbree Street “for the foreseeable future” will only be open to the public on Wednesdays.
NEW BEDFORD Following the holiday break, local hospitals find themselves in the middle of another surge as hospitalizations continue to increase.
As of Wednesday, Massachusetts Department of Health reports there are 2,200 patients hospitalized for COVID-19. There are 461 patients in intensive care units and 286 intubated patients.
In comparison to mid-December s numbers of 1,576 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 308 patients in the ICU and 162 intubated patients, the numbers are rapidly increasing.
This reflects on a local level. As of Thursday, Southcoast Hospitals have a total of 145 COVID-positive patient hospitalizations across the system. Charlton Memorial in Fall River is reported to have 64 patients, six of which are ventilated; St. Luke s in New Bedford has 75 patients, 13 of which are ventilated; and Tobey in Wareham has six patients, one is ventilated. There is a total of 25 patients under investigation (PUI) with six at Charlton, 12 at St. Luke s, and six at Tobey