Over 2,000 Maine Schoolchildren Get COVID Shots In The First Week Of Vaccination

More than 2,000 school children received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, as children aged 5 to 11 were eligible a week ago, according to state data released on Tuesday.

The pace is expected to accelerate across the state as more clinics are set up in the coming weeks to meet demand, especially as schools in Maine begin to offer high-volume immunization.

However, vaccination rates are already very different across states, reflecting the proportion of older children and adults. County with low vaccination rates, including infants, is also the county where the virus continues to spread most rapidly.

For the first time, main Released data on numbers between 5 and 11 years old The person who received the first dose. Maine has reported that 2,018 elementary school students have been injected since federal regulators approved a two-shot Pfizer vaccine for children on November 2.

Half of the vaccinations between the ages of 5 and 11 took place in Cumberland County, where 4.68 percent of newly eligible children were vaccinated. This is twice the state average of 2% for the first week, the highest rate in any county to date. Lincoln County has the second highest percentage at 3.49 percent, followed by York at 1.87 percent. Cumberland, Lincoln, and York County also have the lowest infection rates in Maine.

Androscoggin County has the lowest vaccination rate in the age group, at 0.38%, followed by Somerset County at 0.45%. Somerset County has the highest virus prevalence in Maine, but Androscoggin County also has above the state average.

Pediatric shots are provided primarily at pharmacies and independent community clinics coordinated by medical systems such as Maine Health, Northern Light Health, and InterMed. But soon, school-based clinics will be “armed with shots.”

Dr. Dora Anne Mills, Chief Health Improvement Officer at Maine Health, said the healthcare system is planning dozens of school-based clinics. Most clinics didn’t start this week because they needed time to plan what to expect from the vaccine, answer questions, and educate their parents, Mills said. More than 170 parents attended the Zoom Conference on the November 17th Clinic at Maine Health at Great Falls Elementary School in Goham.

“It will be bigger next week,” Mills said. “These clinics are the most efficient way to get children vaccinated.”

Andrew Sousier, a spokesman for Northern Light, said Northern Light Health, the parent organization of the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and Mercy Hospital in Portland, hosted clinics primarily in 18 school districts in southern Maine. Said that. He said the Penobscot Community Health Center will organize a school clinic in the Bangor area.

Most clinics start next week, but Scaborow’s school is hosting a series of clinics this week for children aged 5-11.

On Tuesday, Maine, 938 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the last three days, killing an additional eight.

The Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not report weekend cases, so Tuesday’s report includes Saturday, Sunday, and Monday cases.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Maine has reported 108,710 COVID-19 deaths and 1,215 deaths.

The 7-day average for new cases daily on Tuesday was 514, 473.4 a week ago and 498.7 a month ago. The state’s most vaccinated District of Cumberland had the lowest total number of cases in seven days, at 151.9 per 100,000 population. Oxford County was the most affected by the virus, with a total of 520.9 cases per 100,000 people in seven days. Cumberland County immunized 80% of the population, and Maine’s least vaccinated Oxford County immunized 61.2% of the population.

Dr. Nirav Shah, CDC Director of Maine, appeared on Maine’s public radio show “Maine Calling” on Monday and was called the latest pandemic. The trend in Maine is “plateau”.

“This high plateau of trends, cases, hospitalizations and deaths we see can continue,” said Shah. He said the virus “just passes through” rural areas of low-vaccination states.

The number of COVID-19 patients in the main state hospital remained at 215 on Tuesday, with 72 patients in the intensive care unit and 31 infected with ventilators. The majority of these patients are unvaccinated, according to hospital and state health authorities. These patients burden resources and staff and force hospitals to delay the medical treatment of other Mainers so that they can take care of COVID-19 patients.

Vaccinations between the ages of 5 and 11 began last week, and schoolchildren from kindergarten to high school are eligible for vaccination, and public health officials hope that enhanced immunization will help control the pandemic. ..

However, school outbreaks remain high, with the Maine Department of Education reporting on Thursday that 161 school outbreaks have produced 3,308 COVID-19 cases (including students and staff) in the last 30 days. Some of the schools with the highest numbers include 43 Sanford High Schools and 39 Winslow Elementary Schools. The number surged from 2,916 and 125 on October 21st to 2,943 and 144 on October 28, and increased again last week.

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