GLOUCESTER– Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken, Public Health Director Karin Carroll, Police Chief Edward Conley and Fire Chief Eric Smith are pleased to share that Chief Conley and Chief Smith received the first dose of the Moderna vaccination yesterday.
Chief Conley and Chief Smith received the first dose of the vaccination ahead of a regional clinic that will be held in Gloucester next week to further distribute the vaccination to select area first responders. First responders recently became eligible to receive the vaccination through the state’s staggered vaccination distribution plan, which will release the vaccination to people through a list of groups ranked by priority.
The community is reminded that the vaccine will not be available to the general public until April at the earliest through the state’s vaccination distribution plan. To learn more, click here.
Chief Conley and Chief Smith each received their vaccination at about 4:15 p.m. on Thursday in Gloucester.
“This is a historic moment for our City, and I am tremendously proud of Chief Conley and Chief Smith for their exemplary leadership throughout this pandemic,” Mayor Romeo Theken said. “It is a relief to know they will be vaccinated against this disease, and we look forward to facilitating the continued distribution of the vaccination in line with the state’s plan over the coming weeks and months.”
“This is a big deal. I think anything you can do to prevent COVID-19, wearing a mask, washing your hands, sanitizing, distancing…I think those are all steps that are important that we’re taking, but the vaccine is really the cure to the problem,” Fire Chief Smith said. “I think it’s critically important to move forward from this to get everybody a vaccine that we can.”
“I’d really like to thank Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken for her leadership and our Public Health Director Karin Carroll who has been the incident commander for this pandemic,” Chief Conley said. “I would also thank the Governor, Lt. Governor, and our local legislators including Sen. Bruce Tarr and Representative Ann Margaret Ferrante for all the work they’ve done to make sure Cape Ann received the vaccine in a timely fashion.”
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