Maine plans to vaccinate 65- to 69-year-olds for COVID-19 in early March

Maine expects those between 65 and 69 to start vaccinating by the first week in March, by which time two-thirds of the 70-year-old population had been vaccinated, governments Janet Mills and other officials said Thursday.

There will be some overlap, and for at least a few weeks both groups will get shots, just as the age group of 70 and older began receiving vaccinations on January 18 while the state continued to vaccinate health workers in the front line. nursing home residents.

“By the first week of March, we hope to vaccinate the 65-year-old population,” Jeanne Lambrew, Maine’s commissioner for health and human services, told a news conference on Thursday.

Maine on Thursday reported 301 new cases of COVID-19 and three additional deaths. Currently, 145 people have been hospitalized for COVID-19 in Maine, with 46 in intensive care.

Under pressure from reporters as to when teachers will be vaccinated, Mills said no decisions have been made on when teachers will start getting their shots fired. The governor said that ‘teachers are highly valued’, but she did not provide details on where teachers would be at the forefront among essential workers. There is a national effort to prioritize teachers for vaccination to keep them safe and to give schools the chance to open more sooner.

“We hope every child gets the chance to be back in the classroom as soon as possible,” Mills said.

Most school districts work according to a hybrid model, where students go to school personally for part of the week and then learn remotely the other part of the week.

Teachers are part of the essential workers in Phase 1B, and although essential workers may include postal workers, grocery stores, teachers and others, the state has yet to say which groups in Phase 1B will be at the forefront of the queue, or when Phase 1B would start for essential workers. Phase 1B also includes the elderly 65 and older, but so far the only group in Phase 1B that has begun immunizing the state are those aged 70 and over, which includes about 193,000 people.

Since the pandemic began, there have been 40,534 positive cases of COVID-19 and 630 deaths.

Business scores continue with their lower trajectory compared to mid-January as the state vaccination program begins. The seven-day average of daily new cases was 297.1 on Thursday, compared to 402.3 a week ago and 521.3 a month ago. The seven-day averages are now similar to early December.

Maine administered 167,111 doses of vaccine, including 123,683 first doses and 43,428 second doses. As of Thursday, 9.2 percent of Maine’s 1.3 million residents had received at least their first dose. According to Bloomberg News vaccine detection, Maine is the tenth best state to measure how quickly doses are given. Alaska is top in the country with 17.76 doses per 100 people through Wednesday, while Maine was at 12.03 doses per 100 people. The national average was 10.7 doses per 100.

However, the supply of vaccines from the federal government remains a matter of concern.

Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday that the supply is currently the biggest barrier to the state’s ability to immunize enough residents to achieve herd immunity.

Herd immunity would be achieved when about 80 percent of the 1.3 million people, or just over 1 million people, are fully vaccinated, enough to prevent the virus from spreading in the population. The administration of Biden has increased shipments to states, but Maine still receives only about 21,000 doses per week.

Maine placed its order for next week, which includes 21,475 doses, an increase of 5 percent – 1,100 doses – over the previous week. Of these, 12,700 will be Moderna doses and 8,775 doses of Pfizer vaccine.

For the fourth consecutive week, Maine has not allocated any new doses to the small pharmacy program run by Walgreens and CVS, which helps vaccinate long-term care facilities. Instead, 2500 doses will be sent to independent pharmacies to operate vaccination clinics at long-term care institutions. Walgreens and CVS continue to immunize long-term care facilities with doses they have previously allocated.

Shah said he was concerned about the slow progress of the retail pharmacy program, especially in Walgreens. According to data from the company’s website, Walgreens completed 100 of 160 long-term care facilities on its list as of Tuesday. Shah said on Thursday that details will be available soon, but he expects a further expansion of the role of independent pharmacies to be announced soon.

The Scarborough Downs Mass Vaccination Center opened Wednesday, with 115 appointments. The site, under the supervision of MaineHealth, will be open for the foreseeable future, every day except Sundays, and will push up to inoculate approximately 1,500 to 2,000 per day, depending on the offer.

Northern Light Health has opened its mass vaccination center at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, and the former Marshall’s in Sanford are being considered for a mass immunization clinic to open later this month. Shah said he expects massive vaccination clinics in the Portland, Lewiston-Auburn and Augusta areas to open as vaccine stocks increase.

Without a nationwide enrollment system, hospitals and healthcare networks have each developed their own ways to plan vaccinations for eligible individuals. The result is a jumble of systems, many of which are overwhelmed by the large number of people trying to secure a limited number of vaccines each week.

About 65,000 people eligible for vaccines have pre-registered with MaineHealth and are awaiting return visits to schedule an appointment when it’s their turn. While people became anxious after waiting weeks for the calls, MaineHealth on Wednesday began making automatic ‘courtesy calls’ to anyone who registered to ensure they were still in the system and would be contacted when an appointment was made for them. available.

Spokesman John Porter said Thursday the automated calls are likely to be made regularly.

Staff Writer Kevin Miller contributed to this report.

“Previous

Next »

Related stories