Vaccinations to Maine will increase next week

Dave Francoeur of the York County Emergency Management Agency assisted Thursday in setting up a vaccination clinic at the former Marshall’s in Sanford. Shawn Patrick Ouellette / Staff Photographer

Maine expects at least an 8 percent increase in the dose of COVID-19 vaccine delivered to the state next week and could receive significantly more than a third vaccine will receive federal approval in the coming days.

State health officials announced Thursday that Maine is expected to receive 30,080 doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, an increase of 2,340 doses over this week’s allocation. With the calculation of approximately 8600 doses expected to be delivered at Walmart / Sam’s Club and Walgreens pharmacies, the expected shipments are approximately twice as large as the distribution of vaccines at the beginning of February.

The larger deliveries, coupled with the predictability of longer distances from the Biden administration and the prospect of a new Johnson & Johnson vaccine, have led to a series of discussions about where we are going from here, ‘said Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

“All of this – volume, type (vaccine) and stability – expands the range of options we have in Maine, where we’re going on in our vaccination journey,” Shah said during his Thursday briefing. “I suspect that Governor Mills will have much more to say on this subject in the near future.”

Government Janet Mills’ office did not respond to a request for an interview after the briefing.

Mills and public health officials said they hope to be eligible for vaccine to Mainers 65 to 69 in early March, as long as the state has made significant progress in vaccinating those 70 and older. Nearly 60 percent of residents in the age group of more than 70 – and about 16 percent of all residents of the state – received at least one shot as of Thursday.

TWENTY-FOUR ADDITIONAL DEATHS

The increase in vaccines comes as the CDC on Thursday reported 24 additional deaths of individuals with COVID-19, a major jump that officials attributed to a review of death records over the past month. The CDC also reported 217 new cases of COVID-19 in the state, recording for the third time in two weeks that the number of new infections was more than 200 per day.

Over the past two days, the CDC in Maine has reported a total of 41 deaths related to COVID-19. However, only two of the deaths have occurred in recent days. The rest took place over the past month, but it was identified as a link to COVID-19 by Maine CDC staff during periodic reviews of death certificates submitted to the Data, Research and Vital Statistics Division.

The 41 additional deaths still highlight that the toll of COVID-19 is still taking residents of Maine – especially those over the age of 70 – even though the number of new infections and hospitalizations is declining and vaccine stocks are increasing.

A sign thanking people for being vaccinated hangs Wednesday at the vaccination clinic at St Christopher’s Church in York. Shawn Patrick Ouellette / Staff Photographer

Although the number of new infections varies significantly from day to day, ranging from 97 to 218 cases over the past week, Maine’s total numbers dropped after the boom in late fall and early winter. The seven-day average rose to 150 on Thursday, slightly higher than the average of 148 cases daily for the week ending February 18, but more than four times lower than the 625 peak average reported on January 15.

The Maine CDC has reported 44,117 total confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 since the coronavirus was first detected in Maine in March. The 24 additional deaths reported Thursday raised the total country to 701.

NEW STORAGE OPTIONS

The rate of vaccinations is also continuing to increase in Maine as more doses of the federal government arrive in the state and older Mainers get extra options to receive shots.

On Thursday, Walgreens drugstores in Maine began firing on individuals 70 years and older who could make appointments. The 47 Walgreens pharmacies in Maine have joined 24 Walmart and Sam’s Club stores through a federal partnership with pharmacies nationwide to offer vaccinations.

The Walmart and Walgreens partnerships are considered the key to reaching Maine residents who live far from the hospitals or health clinics where most vaccinations took place during the first two months of the campaign. Eventually, pharmacies in Hannaford and Shaw’s supermarkets, as well as CVS, are expected to offer COVID-19 vaccines in Maine.

Jeanne Lambrew, commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services in Maine, said the addition of Walgreens is “especially welcome” in more remote or rural areas where vaccination rates were lower.

“We were really struggling with Oxford County,” Lambrew said. “But the Walgreens in Oxford County in itself, through these additional sites we will have a long way to go to achieve our goal of vaccinating sufficient people in Oxford County.”

In addition, Northern Light Health began accepting appointments on Thursday for a higher-volume clinic that opens at the Portland Expo on Tuesday. Persons aged 70 and over can register for appointments online at covid.n Northernlighthealth.org or by calling 207-204-8551.

Shah also announced Thursday that a mass vaccination clinic will open in Sanford early next week. That long-awaited clinic will be operated by MaineHealth and is expected to serve York County residents, who have consistently fared behind Cumberland and other coastal counties in vaccination rates, despite the highest per capita infection rate during the pandemic.

PROGRESS ON STICKS, BUT GEOGRAPHICAL DIFFERENCES REMAIN

As of Thursday morning, health care providers had administered 316,462 total vaccine shots in Maine. This figure contains 211,451 first doses as well as 105,011 second doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, both of which require two shots to achieve full vaccination.

Just under 16 percent of Maine’s population of about 1.3 million people received at least one dose of vaccine as of Thursday, while 7.8 percent received both shots. The current phase of Maine’s vaccination campaign is targeted at individuals 70 years and older, though next week’s grant could expand to 65- to 69-year-olds.

Maine ranked 15th among states and the District of Columbia on Thursday in terms of the percentage of the population that received at least one shot, according to a Bloomberg poll.

There are still large geographical differences in vaccinations due to the allocation of vaccines and the rate at which healthcare providers administer the shots. Shah noted Thursday that the CDC in Maine is particularly focused on the counties of Androscoggin, Somerset, Kennebec, Oxford and Washington, where less than 50 percent of residents 70 and older received shots.

About 59 percent of the 193,000 Maine residents 70 years and older received at least one dose as of Thursday morning, while 16 percent received both doses. Maine is the oldest state in the state and more than 85 percent of the COVID-19 deaths reported so far in Maine have occurred among individuals over the age of 70, although they make up only 12 percent of the cases.

Public health officials nationwide are expecting the potential approval of a third vaccine in the United States as early as this weekend. The vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson requires only one shot instead of the two-shot regimens required by the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, although the J&J shots had slightly lower efficacy during clinical trials.

The J&J vaccine is also more stable, providing additional opportunities for transit clinics, home visits and other strategies to vaccinate more rural or hard-to-reach populations, Lambrew said.

HOSPITALIZATIONS DECLINE

Across the country, 67 people were admitted to hospital with COVID-19 on Thursday, up from 74 the previous day. There were 22 people treated in intensive care units compared to 25 on Wednesday, and eight individuals were connected to ventilators.

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 continued to fall sharply, and Thursday’s score was the lowest level across the country since mid-November.

The decline was particularly pronounced in Bangor’s medical center in eastern Maine – the worst-hit hospital in the state during the boom after Thanksgiving – which reported an average of 6.4 confirmed that COVID inpatients are cared for every day. an eighth of the peak at the end of December.

In the state’s largest hospital, Maine Medical Center in Portland, the figure was 14.9 per day, the lowest level since the week before Thanksgiving.

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