State officials, including Gov. Dan McKee, Education Commissioner Angelica Infanté-Green, and Department of Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, visited Bristol last Friday to tour the vaccination clinic at the Quinta-Gamelin Community Center, the day local teachers and licensed child-care workers were invited to be vaccinated.

“It was good to have Gov. McKee here,” said Town Administrator Steven Contente. “He spent some time, and emphasized the importance of keeping our schools open.”

While glad to meet the new governor, for many on site, meeting Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, who has been Rhode Island’s face of the battle against COVID since the earliest days, was a special honor. “After seeing her on TV for the past year, it was great to have her come by and see our site,” said Mary Ann Quinn, Bristol’s senior services director. “The nurses volunteering at the clinic that day were especially excited to meet her; we all greeted her and thanked her.”

Some 500 educators were identified as being eligible for last Friday’s clinic, and about 280 were given the vaccine (many were able to receive the vaccine through pharmacy clinics in the days following the announcement of their eligibility.) The educators received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and are scheduled to return for their second doses on April 1.

Last Saturday marked the last clinic offering first does to Bristol’s senior citizens; now through April 10 the clinic will be administering second doses.

In the past couple of months, between local and regional first-responders, residents on the special-needs registry, Benjamin Church Manor residents, residents over age 75, and teachers, 5,496 vaccine doses have been administered at Bristol’s vaccination site.

Operations at the Quinta-Gamelin Center are expected to wind down following the second-dose appointments over the next several weeks. Vaccination efforts will be shifting to the state and pharmacy-based clinics, and residents are encouraged to pursue appointments via vaccinateri.org, CVS.com, Walgreens.com, and Lifespan.org.

The Bristol Town Beach testing site will also be closing soon. Currently open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the drive-through, free, rapid testing site is only seeing about a third of the traffic it received when first open. Mr. Contente anticipates the site will close at the end of the month.

Residents looking for free, rapid COVID tests should visit the site at the Barrington Shopping Center at the former Jos. A Banks store, which is currently open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays.