MaineHealth will start vaccinating patients aged 70 and over

Heather Mea-Clark prepares doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine during a clinic on Thursday in Bay Square, an assisted living community in Yarmouth. Derek Davis / Team photographer

Maine’s COVID-19 mass vaccination program for people 70 and older is close to launch, with a large health care network sending out alerts to patients on Thursday that immunizations would begin within two weeks.

On Wednesday, the Mills government changed the state’s program to give seniors aged 70 and over to receive vaccines. These changes are already having an impact on the launch, with MaineHealth sending a message on Thursday to more than 300,000 patients to inform them that it plans to start scheduling COVID-19 vaccine appointments for people aged 70 and over in next week.

While the state runs to vaccinate people, Maine reported 808 new cases of COVID-19 and eight additional deaths on Thursday.

It was the second day in a row that new cases exceeded 800. On Wednesday, Maine registered 824 new cases, a new high. Overall, Maine reported 31,958 COVID-19 cases and 461 deaths. About 85 percent of all deaths in Maine caused by COVID-19 occurred in people 70 and older.

“We hope to have shots in the arms of people 70 and older by the end of the month,” said John Porter, a spokesman for MaineHealth. MaineHealth is the parent company of Maine Medical Center in Portland and operates an extensive network of primary care practices across much of the state, especially in southern Maine. An email from Dr. Joan Boomsma, MaineHealth’s medical director, told patients that vaccine appointments were coming.

While not quite ready, MaineHealth will soon create a call center for patients aged 70 and over to schedule appointments and is working with the state for online scheduling, said Porter. Appointments will be scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis for those 70 and older whose doctors are part of the MaineHealth network.

MaineHealth will be releasing more information about its plans in the future, and patients should not call their doctors to request an appointment now.

All vaccinations will be carried out in autonomous clinics created by MaineHealth strictly for COVID-19 immunizations, said Porter. The vaccine will not be administered in primary care clinics for logistical reasons.

“We are working to increase our vaccination capacity,” he said. Those 70 and older make up about 193,000 of Maine’s 1.3 million population.

Dr. James Jarvis of Northern Light Health said that his healthcare network is developing an online process and a call center to serve patients over 70 who want to schedule a vaccination. Details of how this program will work should be available early next week, said Jarvis.

“We still don’t know what our vaccine quota will be for vaccinating people over 70, but we are confident that we will remain efficient and manage everything we receive,” Jarvis said in a statement late on Thursday. “In addition, we are well ahead of assisting the state in creating large-scale clinics to vaccinate the general public following the state’s phased approach.”

Northern Light has not received the vaccine doses required to begin the next round of vaccinations, but will notify its patients as soon as it is ready to begin.

InterMed, which serves more than 100,000 patients in Greater Portland from its offices in Portland, South Portland and Yarmouth, will begin offering vaccines to its older and vulnerable patients next week, according to spokesman John Lamb. InterMed will continue to vaccinate frontline healthcare professionals.

“We anticipate that the volume of available vaccine will increase in the coming weeks and we will continue to work on our patient lists as soon as possible,” wrote Dan Loiselle, medical director at InterMed, in a vaccination update sent to InterMed patients on Thursday.

“Many of you called for updates,” wrote Loiselle. “I wish I could provide you with a better schedule. The federal government plans to significantly increase the number of doses released, but now, we are taking it week by week. “

Central Maine Healthcare is finalizing plans to expand vaccines, according to a statement from John Alexander, medical director. Central Maine Healthcare serves 400,000 patients in central, western and midcoast Maine. It operates the Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Bridgton Hospital and Rumford Hospital.

“We are excited to start vaccinating our first responders, public safety and critical response personnel and are happy that Maine’s most vulnerable residents are being prioritized under the state’s updated strategy,” said Alexander. “We have been working on logistics, including staff, leases and appointment scheduling systems, as per eligibility. We hope to announce details soon. “

More details on the state’s updated vaccination plan are expected next week.
But the ability of Maine and other states to increase vaccination depends on increasing doses of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed.

Robert Long, a spokesman for the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said Maine should receive 100 extra doses of the vaccines next week, meaning the state will receive 17,275 doses. Weekly doses have hovered around 17,000 in the past few weeks.

Dr. Nirav Shah, director of Maine’s CDC, said the state needs to receive 50,000 doses a week of Operation Warp Speed ​​to avoid supply problems that restrict the distribution of the vaccine.

Maine will receive an additional $ 89 million in federal funds to fight the pandemic, including $ 12 million for the COVID-19 vaccination program and $ 77 million for testing, contact tracking and other strategies, the state delegation told Congress in a joint announcement on Thursday. The $ 89 million was Maine’s share of a $ 50.8 billion congressional settlement last month for relief from COVID-19 to the states.

“In the midst of this unprecedented economic and public health crisis, it is critical for Mainers to have access to vaccines and COVID-19 tests,” said Sens’s statement. Susan Collins, Republican, Angus King, an independent and Representatives Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, and Jared Golden, D-2nd District. “This important investment will help keep communities healthy and safe, increasing the availability of tests and promoting the efficient distribution of vaccines across our state.”

In Maine, the seven-day daily average of new cases soared to 618.1 on Thursday, compared with 520.4 just three days ago, 490 the previous week and 387.3 the previous month.

The new vaccination plan also elevates public security workers to the current phase of immunizations.

The current vaccination program is in Phase 1A, which includes health professionals, paramedics and nursing home staff and residents, but will soon add public safety professionals such as police officers. To date, 66,487 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, 56,355 first doses and 10,132 second doses.

Phase 1B, which includes those aged 70 and over, is due to start soon and can be launched even before Phase 1A is completed.

They have also been moved to Phase 1B, which includes essential frontline workers such as teachers and postal workers, those who manufacture, distribute or process COVID-19 tests.

There are currently 193 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Maine, with 63 in intensive care. The eight deaths included three residents of Penobscot County, two from York County, two from Cumberland County and one from Aroostook County. Of the deaths, five were women and three were men. Six of the deaths were of people aged 80 and over, while two people who died were in their 70s.

Team writer Dennis Hoey contributed to this report.

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