Watch Now! COVID-19 Data & Communications
Learn about data being collected by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and what we know about effective health communication for COVID-19.
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Here Come the COVID Vaccines- But Hurdles Remain
Executive Director Jessica Collins was recently interviewed for an article that appeared in BusinessWest on December 22, 2020 about COVID-19 vaccines, including addressing hesitancy about taking the vaccine. Although vaccinations are underway, it is going to take some time before they reach the general public and we get enough immunity in the population to put an end to the crisis. In the meantime, “People need to wait it out.”

When Can You Get the COVID Vaccine?
The Baker-Polito Administration and the Department of Public Health developed a vaccine distribution timeline after extensive consultation with the Massachusetts Vaccine Advisory Group, made up of leaders from health care, the faith community, community organizations, local government, and others. The timeline reflects several priorities: protecting our most vulnerable, maintaining health care system capacity, and addressing inequities in health care access and COVID-19 burden.

COVID-19 in Western Massachusetts
Check out the latest update to the Western MA COVID-19 Data Dashboard, and visit our county pages to see even more data, including county data over time, community-level data, hospital capacity by region, and more!
The Western MA COVID-19 Data Dashboard is updated every Friday, by mid-afternoon. Please note that because of the holiday on 1/1/2021, the county dashboard will be updated Thursday 12/31/2020, and the rest of the COVID-19 data on our website (community data, county data over time, etc.) will be updated by the following Monday (1/4/2021).
Let us know what you think about our Data Dashboard.
How do you use our Dashboard? Are there other things you'd like us to include?
New Capacity & Gathering Limits
On December 22, the Baker-Polito Administration announced additional restrictions to help stop the spread of COVID-19. The new measures went into effect on Saturday December 26, 2020, and will remain in effect until noon on January 10, 2021 (with the possibility of extension).

  • Most industries will be subject ot a 25% capacity limit. See list of industries.
  • Indoor gatherings are limited to 10 people.
  • Outdoor gatherings are limited to 25 people.
  • Hospitals are directed to postpone or cancel nonessential inpatient elective invasive procedures to maintain and increase inpatient capacity.
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