MATTAPOISETT — While the town is unsure when it will receive more doses, its first 100-dose covid vaccine clinic for residents 75-and-up was a success. 

Public Health Nurses Emily Field and Amanda Stone updated the Board of Health on vaccine distribution at a Feb. 10 meeting. 

“It was a manageable number, it wasn’t overwhelming by any means,” Stone said. 

Part of what made the clinic run smoothly was the town’s method of organizing vaccine appointments. 

To register for the vaccine, eligible residents have to fill out a Vaccine Insurance Form, which can be found on Mattapoisett’s website. Then, all the forms the town receives each week are placed into a pool which corresponds to the week they were submitted. 

Each pool of forms is then exhausted before the town begins offering doses to the next pool. 

Using this system, residents only have to submit their Vaccine Insurance Form once, and are able to receive the vaccine in the order forms were submitted.

In addition, the town is working to ensure the safety of all those attending its clinics by taking precautions like taking temperatures at the door. 

“Not only were people screened prior to people coming to their appointment,” Stone said, but the town also offered education on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. 

In accordance with the precautions, Stone said some residents came to the clinic with the intention of being vaccinated, “and for their safety they were sent home.” 

The public health nurses also noted that while there is no clear indication of when the next clinic for initial doses might be, those who have already received the first dose of the vaccine through the town are guaranteed the second dose.  

“We’re hoping next week we get some doses so we can move forward with another first dose clinic,” Stone said. 

But the Public Health Nurse noted that the town is at the liberty of the state when it comes to new doses. “We can’t book another clinic for first doses until vaccine has been shipped,” she said. 

For now, the town will remain to focus on its older residents and vulnerable population, to the point where Stone said she hasn’t yet received the first dose of the vaccine. 

Stone said that after one resident came to the Feb. 8 clinic with a fractured pelvis, she’s “absolutely happy when we have 100 doses available” to wait until the town’s most vulnerable residents are inoculated. 

Until then, she said she’ll be continuing to wear a mask, socially distance and follow all other precautions. “My physical presence can be replaced,” the Public Health Nurse said, if she has to quarantine due to exposure.