Maine breaking records of injections administered as national vaccinations increase

Valerie DeMerchant, a pharmacist from Hannaford at Elm Plaza in Waterville, injects James Merrill of Yarmouth with the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 single dose vaccine on Friday. Michael G. Seamans / Morning Sentinel

Maine’s COVID-19 vaccination program has managed a new average high of more than 10,000 doses per day for the past seven days, even as the state prepares for a smaller vaccine delivery this week than the week before.

Maine’s seven-day daily average was 10,442 doses a day on Monday, rising from about 7,000 to 7,500 a day from February 10 to 28, thanks to a recent spike in federal government supplies.

Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a tweet on Monday that this represents a “36% acceleration in vaccine production just last week”. Maine has also expanded the number of mass vaccination clinics in recent weeks, adding locations at Expo Portland and former Marshalls in Sanford, among others, and vaccines are now being given at many Hannaford supermarket pharmacies.

But Maine will receive fewer doses this week, about 45,250 compared to 55,060 the previous week. That number is still higher than the 39,060 doses administered two weeks ago, and much higher than the 18,000 weekly doses that the state was receiving weeks ago.

While vaccine deliveries from Moderna and Pfizer increased by about 5,000 doses this week, shipments of the new vaccine from Johnson & Johnson dropped from 15,000 to just 500. The drop in doses from Johnson & Johnson was expected when the Biden administration ” emptied the shelves “of the new vaccine shortly after it was approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration, and it will take a few weeks for production to increase again.

Of this week’s 45,250 doses, 33,500 are for the state vaccination program, which includes mass vaccination sites and other clinics across Maine.

The remaining 11,750 doses are for the federal pharmaceutical retail program and will go to Walmart, Sam’s Club, Walgreens and Hannaford pharmacies. These doses will be reserved for school and daycare staff after Governor Janet Mills announced last week that age restrictions have been lifted for these groups. The Biden administration has made educators a priority recently, in an effort to protect school staff, while also having students return to classrooms this spring.

The retail pharmacy program is for school employees of all ages. In addition, the Maine CDC is setting up clinics for teachers aged 60 and over starting this week.

Last week, some school employees under the age of 60 gained access by mistake and were able to enroll in one of the registration links at these clinics. But the health organization in partnership with the Departments of Health and Human Services and Education to offer these clinics has redefined these appointments for education teams aged 60 and over.

School and daycare staff, regardless of age, can get vaccines from pharmacies participating in the federal pharmacy program. All registered pharmacy suppliers are required to cancel all vaccination appointments currently unscheduled for teachers, school staff and child caregivers by March 31. Places that remain unscheduled 48 hours before the appointment, however, can be released to others. Additional vaccine clinics will also begin accepting appointments for licensed school and daycare staff as soon as they can, Maine DOE spokeswoman Kelli Deveaux said by email on Monday.

As the vaccination program grows nationally – from about 1.6 million doses a day in mid-February to a seven-day average of 2.1 million a day on Monday – Maine’s ranking among states how fast it is immunizing its population is closer to the average. Maine used to rank in the top 10 as a percentage of the population receiving at least the first dose, but is now 16th, according to a state-by-state tracker from Bloomberg News.

As of Monday, 270,423 Maine residents have received at least one first dose, about 20.12% of the population, and 152,512, or 11.35% of the population, have been fully immunized.

The Maine CDC also reported 132 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, and no additional deaths.

The state’s daily case count has stabilized since the end of February, with daily averages of seven days in the mid-160s, including 166.3 on Monday. It is a sharp decline from more than 600 daily cases in mid-January, but the decline has flattened out.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 45,926 cases of COVID-19 in Maine and 706 deaths.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in Maine increased slightly on Monday to 71, including 20 in intensive care and 10 in a ventilator. As with the cases, hospitalizations have stabilized in recent weeks, after a steady decline from an increase of more than 200 in mid-January.

Amid an increase in vaccinations and a reduction in cases, Maine should ease its COVID-19 restrictions into the summer tourist season. Mills announced last week that New England state residents are no longer required to quarantine or produce a negative test result upon arrival in Maine. Previously, the only exempt states were New Hampshire and Vermont.

As of May 1, these relaxed rules will apply to all states, unless Maine places restrictions on specific ones based on increased case counts and other metrics tending in the wrong direction.

Other eased restrictions include allowing more people in internal and external meetings, although the spacing and masking requirements remain.

Internal meetings will be allowed to operate at 50 percent capacity as of March 26 and 75 percent on May 24. Outdoor meetings will rise from 75 percent capacity on March 26 to 100 percent on May 24.

Bars and tasting rooms may open on March 26.

Editor Rachel Ohm contributed to this story.

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