Maine CDC says clinics will not be affected by delays in transporting vaccines

State health officials said Friday that weather-related shipments of COVID-19 vaccines did not cause major disruption at Maine clinics, although some Walmart pharmacies may be affected.

Older Mainers, meanwhile, may soon have another option to do vaccinations, as pharmacy giant Walgreens prepares to offer shots to suitable individuals in Maine and other states.

Members of the White House COVID-19 Response Team said the shipment of about 6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine has been delayed due to this week’s widespread winter weather. Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House on COVID-19 response, said the backlog had affected all 50 states and recommended the countries prepare for deliveries larger than planned as divers catch up next week .

“We know that many Americans are waiting for their second dose and many more for their first dose,” Slavitt said during a Friday briefing. “We are asking the vaccine administration websites to extend their hours and offer additional appointments and to try to reschedule their vaccinations over the coming days and weeks as the supply increases. States and vaccination sites will want to be prepared for the additional volume. ”

But a spokeswoman for the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said only a small number of second doses bound to Maine were delayed.

“In anticipation of the storm, the Maine immunization program has arranged for all of this week’s first doses to be delivered by Monday to ensure scheduled vaccinations are not interrupted,” Maine spokesman Robert Long said in an email. writing. ‘We were later informed that the delivery of a small number of second doses would be delayed at the end of this week. We adjusted for the delay in the arrival of the second doses and worked with Maine vaccinations to ensure clinics could happen on the weekend and early next week according to schedule. ”

Maine’s share of the vaccines would increase by about 14 percent next week. More than 190,000 individuals – or 14.4 percent of Maine’s population – received at least one dose of vaccine from Friday morning, according to the Maine CDC.

However, nationwide shipping disruptions could affect vaccination clinics at Walmart pharmacies in Maine.

Long said a Walmart representative contacted the Maine CDC on Friday to say that it is possible that the delivery of some doses assigned to their stores in Maine could be delayed due to storm-related complications. “

Representatives from Walmart’s corporate office did not immediately respond to questions about possible delays or canceled appointments. The company was vaccinated last week by appointment with Mainers, 70 or older, at 22 Walmart and two Sam’s Club locations across the state.

Northern Light Health, which operates vaccination clinics throughout Maine, as well as a large volume of premises at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, has experienced delayed deliveries of vaccines due to the winter storms. However, a Northern spokesman said the delays did not force any cancellations as the healthcare network only offers appointments for vaccines that are already available.

“Because we follow this approach, no one who has reported an appointment will or will be affected,” spokesman Andy Soucier said. “We do not expect the slight delays in transporting vaccines to significantly affect the number of people we can vaccinate.”

APPEARANCE PROGRAM EXTENSIVE

Many Maine residents may soon have another option – Walgreens pharmacies – for vaccination.

In a submission Thursday to members of the state’s Vaccine Planning Group, Maine Department of Health and Human Services officials indicated that the state has selected Walgreens as the next partner under the federal Retail Pharmacy program. Walgreens will partner with Walmart on a program that could eventually extend to CVS, Hannaford and Shaw’s supermarket pharmacies in Maine.

In a statement Friday night, a Walgreens representative said the chain’s pharmacies in Maine will begin receiving doses of vaccines from Feb. 25 as part of the federal partnership with pharmacies nationwide. Walgreens locations in Maine will initially receive 4,680 doses, although it was unclear how it would be distributed among the chain stores.

This week, the Biden government planned to double the number of vaccine doses allocated to participating pharmacy chains from 1 million to 2 million. Walmart and Sam’s Club pharmacies in Maine are expected to receive 4,300 doses from the federal government next week.

According to a Walgreens representative, residents of Maine will both be able to schedule the vaccine appointments at the same time next week at the company’s online appointment planner: Walgreens.com/ScheduleVaccine.

DECREASING CASES

With the prospect of even greater doses next week, Maine’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign expands as the state wants to vaccinate residents 70 years and older. The vaccination state comes at a time when Maine and most other states are seeing dramatically lower infections, but also the spread of more transmissible variants of the coronavirus.

The Maine CDC on Friday reported 134 new cases of COVID-19, along with another death, identified as a man in his 70s from Washington County.

Although the number of new COVID-19 cases reported over the past week varies from a high of 218 on Thursday to a low of 91 on Tuesday, the seven-day average remains a decline in new infected infections. The seven-day rolling average was 141 on Friday compared to 208 a week earlier and a record high of 625 for the week ending January 15th.

To date, Maine CDC has detected 43,224 confirmed or probable cases of coronavirus-induced disease and at least 656 individuals in Maine have died after contracting COVID-19 since March. Maine has the third lowest infection rate in the country – of 3,206 cases per 100,000 inhabitants – and the fourth lowest death rate among the states, according to The New York Times.

The hospitalization rate is still set to fall nationwide following a post-holiday boom that has pushed them to their highest levels in Maine since the pandemic began last March. As of Friday, 87 people across the country were hospitalized with COVID-19, of which 29 individuals were treated in critical care units and seven were connected to ventilators.

EXPANSIONS EXTENDED

Maine’s vaccination campaign is still targeting residents 70 years and older, and the pace of the effort is expected to accelerate next week thanks to a 14 percent increase in federal government doses.

As of Friday morning, health care providers have been administering a total of 278,806 doses of vaccine since mid-December. The figure contains 193,284 initial doses and 85,522 second or last doses.

Maine is currently in Phase 1B of its vaccination plan, which targets individuals aged 70 and older, and is expected to begin offering vaccinations to 65- to 69-year-olds next month. So far, 50 percent of Maine’s 193,000 residents aged 70 or older have received at least one shot and 10 percent have received both. There are still 92,000 people in the age group 65-69 years.

The Maine CDC announced Thursday that the agency is expected to receive 27,740 doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines next week, representing a 5 265 dose increase over this week. However, the actual number of additional doses is 3,510, as the federal government changes its accounting method for the Pfizer vaccine, which has consistently arrived in vials containing six doses, rather than the five doses suggested in previous counts.

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