The largest ambulance company in Massachusetts is getting ready to distribute the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, once it becomes available.
"It's going to be all hands on deck," said Chris DiBona, Chief Clinical Officer at Brewster Ambulance. "We have over 100 people trained up to deliver immunizations, not only internally to our Brewster Ambulance Service but externally to our municipalities and customers."
Distribution of the vaccine will be a two-step process for the Weymouth-based ambulance company, DiBona explained.
First, they must immunize their own first responders and eventually they will help communities organize vaccine distribution, much like they've done with COVID-19 testing.
"They need the bandwidth to get the clinicians out there to do the inoculations," DiBona said.
The ambulance company started planning for all of this back in January when news started to surface about the virus in China. That's when they quickly formed an infectious disease unit.
More on the Coronavirus in Mass.
DiBona said the company wants to be ready as soon as the vaccine arrives.
"We want to make sure we cover all of our workforce," DiBona said. "We have overnight shifts, day shifts and evening shifts so this is going to be a 24-hour process to get everybody covered."
DiBona said they haven't received word from the state about how much of the vaccine they will get or when but he says those meetings are scheduled.
