Maine CDC says clinics will not be affected by delayed shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine

State health officials said on Friday that delays in sending climate-related COVID-19 vaccines did not cause major disruptions to Maine clinics, although some Walmart pharmacies could be affected.

Members of the White House’s COVID-19 response team said shipments of about 6 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were delayed due to this week’s widespread winter weather. Andy Slavitt, the senior advisor to the White House for the COVID-19 response, said the buildup affected all 50 states and recommended that states prepare for larger deliveries than planned, while senders try to catch up next time week.

“We know that many Americans are waiting for their second dose and many more are waiting for their first dose,” said Slavitt during a meeting on Friday. “We are asking vaccine administration locations to extend their schedules even further and offer additional consultations and try to reschedule their vaccinations in the coming days and weeks as more supplies arrive. Vaccine states and locations will want to be prepared for the additional volume. “

But a spokesman for the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that only a small number of second doses to Maine have been postponed.

“In anticipation of the storm, the Maine Immunization Program made sure that all of the first doses this week were delivered on Monday to ensure that scheduled vaccinations were not interrupted,” wrote Maine CDC spokesman Robert Long, for email. “We were later notified that the delivery of a small number of second doses would be delayed later this week. We adjusted the delay in the arrival of these second doses and worked with vaccinators from Maine to ensure that clinics this weekend and early next week can take place as scheduled. “

Maine’s share of vaccine doses is expected to increase by about 14% next week. More than 190,000 individuals – or 14.4% of Maine’s population – received at least one dose of the vaccine on Friday morning, according to the Maine CDC.

Disruptions in national transportation can affect vaccination clinics at Walmart pharmacies in Maine.

Long said a Walmart representative contacted Maine’s CDC on Friday “to say that it is possible that delivery of some of the doses allocated to their stores in Maine will be delayed because of storm-related complications.”

Representatives at Walmart’s corporate office did not immediately respond to questions about possible delays or canceled appointments. The company began offering vaccines by appointment last week to Mainers aged 70 and over 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 high-volume site at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, had delayed deliveries of vaccines because of winter storms. But a Northern Light spokesman said the delays did not force any cancellation because the healthcare network only offers consultations for vaccines that are already on hand.

“As we take this approach, no one who applied for an appointment was or will be affected,” said spokesman Andy Soucier. “We don’t expect that small delays in sending the vaccine will affect the number of people that we can vaccinate significantly.”

EXPANSION OF THE PHARMACY PROGRAM

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

In a presentation on Thursday to members of the state’s Vaccine Planning Group, Maine Department of Health and Human Services officials indicated that the state chose Walgreens as the next partner of the federally administered Retail Pharmacy Program. Walgreens would join Walmart on a program that could eventually extend to CVS, Hannaford and Shaw supermarkets in Maine.

Long said the Maine CDC is still waiting for a response from the federal government as to when this next phase of the Retail Pharmacy Program will begin. Walmart and Sam’s Club pharmacies in Maine are expected to receive 4,300 doses from the federal government, and Maine DHHS said Thursday that 4,800 doses would be distributed “directly to an additional pharmacy chain” in Maine.

This week, the Biden administration announced plans to double the number of vaccine doses allocated to participating pharmacy chains from 1 million to 2 million. An Illinois-based Walgreens representative did not respond to an interview request on Friday.

With the prospect of even higher dose allocations next week, Maine’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign is expanding as the state seeks to inoculate residents aged 70 and over. The vaccination push comes at a time when Maine and most other states are seeing dramatically lower rates of new infections, but also tracking the spread of more transmissible variants of the coronavirus.

CASE OF REFUSALs

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

Although the number of new COVID-19 cases reported last week has varied, ranging from a maximum of 218 on Thursday to a minimum of 91 on Tuesday, the seven-day average continues to show an overall decline in new infections detected. The seven-day continuous average stood at 141 on Friday, compared with 208 the previous week and a record 625 in the week ending January 15.

To date, the Maine CDC has tracked 43,224 confirmed or probable cases of coronavirus 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 – 3,206 cases per 100,000 residents – and the fourth lowest death rate among states, according to The New York Times.

Hospitalization rates also continue to decline across the state, after a post-holiday increase that has brought them to the highest levels in Maine since the pandemic began last March. As of Friday, 87 people were hospitalized across the state with COVID-19, with 29 of these individuals being treated in intensive care units and seven connected to ventilators.

EXPANSION OF VACCINATIONS

Maine’s vaccination campaign continues to target residents aged 70 and over, and the pace of that effort is expected to accelerate over the next week, thanks to an approximately 14% increase in federal government dose shipments.

On Friday morning, healthcare providers have administered a total of 278,806 doses of the vaccine since mid-December. That number includes 193,284 initial doses and 85,522 second or final doses.

Maine is currently in Phase 1B of its vaccination plan focused on individuals aged 70 and over, and is expected to start offering vaccines to people aged 65 to 69 next month. So far, 50% of Maine’s 193,000 residents aged 70 and over have received at least one injection and 10% both. There are over 92,000 people in the 65-69 age group.

On Thursday, the Maine CDC announced that the agency expected to receive 27,740 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines next week, representing a numerical increase of 5,265 doses this week. The actual number of additional doses is 3,510, however, because the federal government is changing its method of accounting for the Pfizer vaccine, which consistently arrives in bottles containing six doses instead of the five doses represented in previous counts.

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