Thousands Of Boosters Available At Natick Clinic

NATICK, MA — Having trouble finding an appointment to get a coronavirus vaccine booster shot? Natick has thousands available.

The Natick Health Department will host a booster clinic on Saturday at the high school. Boosters are available for anyone over 18 who received a second vaccine dose more than six months ago.

As of Wednesday morning, the town still had close to 1,700 booster shots ready to hand out. Saturday's clinic will feature boosters in the Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson versions. The Food and Drug Administration has said that mixing vaccines — for example, two shots of Moderna with a Pfizer booster — is OK.

There has been a bit of a crunch to find booster shots in Massachusetts as locals seek increased protection near the holidays. Gov. Charlie Baker has said the state has plenty of shots to give, but has seen a bottleneck distributing boosters.

Coronavirus cases are on the rise in the Natick area. As of Dec. 3, the town was seeing 17.3 new cases per day, and had a town wide positive test rate of 2.17 percent. The omicron variant has also entered the state, although new research shows one version of the vaccine with a booster may offer good protection.

The Natick clinic, cosponsored by the V-Care Pharmacy, will run from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday. Sign up for an appointment here.