AT GILLETTE, VACCINATION EXPERIENCE HAS PLENTY OF FANS

FOXBORO REPORTER

On a sunny but cold Thursday, Francis and Theresa Lipari sounded like they had just won the lottery.

In a way, they had.

The couple had driven from Plymouth to Gillette Stadium to get their doses of the coronavirus vaccine. While there have been well-reported cases of delays and confusion at some venues offering the shots, the Liparis could not have been happier with their experience at the state’s first-designated mass vaccination site.

Francis, 83, said he had no problems getting an appointment at Gillette, then Theresa, 75, corrected him.

“You did have a little problem signing up,” she said.

“Well,” he replied, “not once they opened up Gillette.”

“It’s so well organized here it’s unbelievable,” Francis said.

The couple had been concerned they would have to wait outside in a long line as has been the case at other sites where the state has launched the fraught rollout of Phase II of its vaccination program aimed at people 75 and up.

Instead, a scoreboard-style sign over the entrance to the stadium’s Putnam Club, where the vaccinations are being done, announced when the next appointment was being handled. The Liparis waited comfortably in their car until their appointment came up.

An announcement on a loop on a public address system reminded people to wait in their cars until 10 minutes before their appointments to avoid long lines.

In fact, there were no lines at either the walk-in entrance or the separate entrance for those using wheelchairs or walkers. Those with appointments were moving so fast it was difficult for reporters — more than one of whom were at Gillette last Thursday — to get them to slow down for a brief comment.

The efficiency and ease of the process was a common refrain over two different days a reporter visited the site.

Some people said they had used alternate websites to sign up for appointments after finding the state’s to be a problem. But most said that once they got their appointments, things went smoothly,

It was not a universal experience, however.

Patricia Neary, 82, of Bridgewater was not impressed with the process at Gillette.

Last Monday, she said, she had to wait in the cold for 15 to 20 minutes and then with hundreds of others inside with inconsistent social distancing. “I hope I didn’t get COVID there,” Neary said in an email. There was a further wait, she said, “because they ‘were waiting for vaccine.’” She said that shouldn’t have happened. “We all needed appointments so they must have known how many vials they needed,” she wrote.

For others, like the Liparis, the process was quick and convenient, and, Theresa said admiringly, “The people were very nice.”

That remark would have pleased Tom Maglio, ground logistics manager for DMSE Sports, an event planning company out of Woburn that’s handling the nuts and bolts work of processing people through the stadium’s vaccine center.

“I think we’ve adapted pretty well,” Maglio, 55, said, adding that things get a little more crowded around lunch time.

“People have a little more time to spend with us. So they make the second appointment,” he said, referring to the booster shot that’s recommended for the vaccine to take full effect.

Over 45,500 people have been vaccinated at the Gillette site since it opened 28 days ago, for a rate of about 3,000 a day. Now they are seeing some individuals who are coming back for that second shot. Maglio said they are ready to ramp up to 10,000 shots a day once more vaccine in available.

The actual vaccination takes about five minutes, he said, but recipients are asked to stay for a few minutes more in an observation area to ensure they don’t suffer an adverse reaction.

State officials plan to open mass vaccination sites in Natick and Dartmouth in the coming weeks. Those sites will eventually boost the number of state-run mass sites to seven.

In addition, caregivers who bring older patients for a shot will now be eligible to receive vaccinations themselves, regardless of age or condition.

Also, 74,000 new appointments were to be posted for the state’s mass vaccination sites and CVS and Walgreens retail pharmacies.

About 30,000 other appointments will be posted during the week at retail pharmacy outlets.

Gov. Charlie Baker said the states that “have done the best job at getting shots into people’s arms are the states that have big sites.”

Maglio said the new mass vaccination sites will take some of the pressure off Gillette, where the occasional person without an appointment will show up. But, he added, “No matter who comes in, we try to accommodate them.”

DMSE’s main business up to now has been planning and running road races.

“As our founder says, this is the most important race of our lifetime,” Maglio said.

Lee Tashjian, 75, of Yarmouthport, came out of Gillette a fan.

“I was down for an appointment at 11:51 and they had a needle in my arm at 11:51,” he said.

Tashjian used one of the alternate websites to sign up, but after that, “I phoned my wife while I was waiting for about 15 minutes and told her this was quite smooth.”