Maine to speed up vaccination program next week and get record number of doses

Maine will speed up its COVID-19 vaccination program next week, thanks to a huge influx of Johnson & Johnson vaccine that will give residents more options to sign up for a vaccination appointment.

At the same time, starting Thursday, anyone 50 and over can get the vaccine in Maine’s retail pharmacy program, including at Walmart, Sam’s Club, Hannaford, Walgreen and Shaw pharmacies. An administrative directive from Biden had reserved doses in pharmacies for school staff until March 31.

Maine is expected to receive 54,790 doses for its state immunization schedule next week, according to federal data released Wednesday. That’s a record number for the state program, largely due to a spike in Johnson & Johnson’s doses from 8,100 this week to 20,600 next week. In total, this represents an increase of 9,590 doses this week for the state’s immunization schedule.

In addition, Maine on Wednesday reported 251 new cases of COVID-19 and five additional deaths.

Increasing vaccine doses could increase the timeline for people under 50 to get vaccinated. Maine currently lags behind most states in expanding the eligibility of all adults to get the vaccine. Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia have either already opened eligibility to all adults or plan to do so before Maine’s current date of April 19, when all adults 16 and older could schedule a vaccine, according to the health policy of the Kaiser Family Foundation. research Center.

John Porter, spokesperson for MaineHealth, the parent company of Maine Medical Center, said appointments at MaineHealth sites, which include the Scarborough Downs mass vaccination site and others, are being filled for the next week, but they’re ready for a dose escalation.

“With respect to expanding age eligibility, we are confident that we can accommodate any demand that arises,” Porter said.

Dr James Jarvis, COVID-19 Incident Commander for Northern Light Health, which runs mass vaccination clinics at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor and Portland Expo, said in Greater Portland, demand still exceeds supply. , but that demand begins to “wane” off “in northern Maine.

Jarvis said it wasn’t his call to expand eligibility, it depended on state officials, but that as the supply of vaccines increased, “we have open appointments in the State of Maine.

Robert Long, spokesperson for Maine CDC, said the state agency is still waiting to confirm the numbers posted on the federal website for next week’s supplies. He said the state is expected to have more information on the state’s dose allocation on Thursday.

Dr Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in a statement to the media on Tuesday, noted that with sturdy supplies, this week is a great opportunity for anyone 50 and over to get vaccinated without having to rush for a date. .

He said that if Maine wanted to be “Vacationland” again, it had to be “Vaccinationland” first.

Shah said health officials are constantly assessing the balance between supply and demand for doses, and when there is too much supply and not enough demand, they will open up eligibility for more categories of doses. ‘age.

For this week and at least until next week, vaccine stocks will be strong.

Those 50 and over became eligible for vaccination on March 23. As of now, eligibility for all adults 16 and older is expected to begin April 19, if the state does not advance that timeline for younger people.

The 54,790 doses assigned to Maine next week do not include doses sent directly to the federal retail pharmacy program. This program received around 23,000 doses this week, but its next allocation probably won’t be known until this weekend.

If the allocation from retail pharmacies is similar to this week’s, Maine would receive nearly 78,000 doses next week, which would be a record number of total doses sent to the state. Maine had a record number of doses this week, with approximately 72,000 doses.

For the state’s allowance, Maine will receive 20,600 doses of Johnson & Johnson, 19,890 doses of Pfizer and 14,300 doses of Moderna next week.

Despite an increasing number of people getting vaccinated, the number of cases remains high, as the virus is still circulating among people not yet eligible for the vaccine.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 50,504 positive cases of COVID-19 and 743 deaths.

As of Wednesday, 426,899 people have received at least a first dose of the vaccine, or 31.76% of the state’s 1.3 million people. Additionally, 265,887 – 19.78 percent – received their final dose.

Currently, there are 74 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Maine, including 22 in intensive care.

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