Mount Holyoke College’s pop-up vaccination clinic within the atrium of Kendade Hall. Photo by Trinity Kendrick ‘21.
By Ella White ’22
Staff Writer
Hampshire County has received the lowest number of doses per capita of any county in Massachusetts, but the county has still managed to vaccinate a larger share of the population than many other counties. Hampshire has consistently had the lowest number of doses throughout the pandemic.
At present, Hampshire County has received enough doses to vaccinate 53 percent of its population and has already fully vaccinated at least 35 percent of the adult population.
Residents and students living in Massachusetts can get vaccinated at clinics or mass vaccination sites across the state. Through Massachusetts’s preregistration program, those eligible can receive email or text updates when appointments become available. Both the CDC and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health offer portals to search for available appointments by ZIP code.
Residents of Massachusetts are also eligible to be vaccinated in New Hampshire as of April 19.
On Friday, April 23, the College also announced its plan to require students to be vaccinated before returning to campus in the fall. “We expect there will be very limited exceptions and will be working to set up structures to ensure compliance and to vaccinate those students who are unable to be vaccinated before returning to campus,” the College’s statement read.
All colleges in the Five College Consortium now require students to be vaccinated for the fall semester.
While Mount Holyoke says it will “encourage all members of our community” to be vaccinated, it will only be a requirement for students.
The same is the case at Hampshire College, where the college president said there are legal concerns with requiring faculty and staff to be vaccinated.
“It’s a slightly different question, students can choose to come or not to come in the fall, they can take a semester off if they are uncomfortable with it, requiring that of employees is a slightly different question,” Hampshire College President Ed Wingenbach told Western Mass News.
Students will be invited back to campus in late August.
Though Gov. Charlie Baker has announced that effective Friday, April 30, masks will no longer be mandated in outdoor public settings in the state, the College reiterated in an email that all students must still wear masks at all times this spring, including when socially distancing outdoors.
The College asks that students currently living on campus email a photo of their vaccination cards as soon as possible to Health Services or bring it to the Health Center in person.