AUGUSTA, Maine – Government Janet Mills announced Tuesday that she will adopt a new set of federal guidelines that will move older and vulnerable Mainers into the state’s coronavirus vaccination program.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday announced new guidelines that encouraged states to move anyone 65 or older as well as those with pre-existing conditions into a current phase that is largely reserved for health care workers and those working in long-term care facilities. At the same time, President Donald Trump’s government also promised to release the second doses of the vaccine rather than keep it in the reserve for the boosters.
The change in strategy has been under consideration for weeks, and Maine health officials mostly did not want to speculate on what the state would do if it did. But Mills said in a Tuesday news release that it was “appropriate” that the first vaccines go to older residents and that she would announce updates to the plan soon.
Maine is the oldest state in the country at median age. It also has one of the largest share among states of people with health conditions that make them vulnerable to COVID-19. A report from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 42.5 percent of Maine adults – 60 percent of those over 65 and 23 percent of younger adults – are at risk of contracting serious diseases if they contract the virus.
There may be logical implications for the change. Maine, like many states, prioritized health care workers, residents of long-term care facilities, and emergency medical services workers for its first doses. These groups are largely vaccinated at their place of work or residence, making it easier to vaccinate them than other Mainers who have to make appointments.
The director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nirav Shah, said the state would set up large community establishments and mobile sites as vaccinations began to reach the general population, but the details of those plans had not yet been finalized.
Both vaccinations also require refrigerated storage, although Pfizer’s only require refrigerators, only hospitals, some universities and the state usually have them.
Maine is one of the leading states in the distribution of vaccines, with only four states distributing more doses per capita. State health officials recently vaccinated to vaccines that Walgreens, one of the two major pharmacy chains responsible for the long-term care vaccination program across the country, had no immediate plan to give to hospitals.