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Maine CDC Director: Focus Should Be On First COVID-19 Vaccine, Not Booster

A pharmacy technician loads a syringe with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Tuesday, March 2, 2021, at a mass vaccination site at the Portland Expo in Portland, Maine.
Robert F. Bukaty
/
AP
A pharmacy technician loads a syringe with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Tuesday, March 2, 2021, at a mass vaccination site at the Portland Expo in Portland, Maine.

The director of the Maine CDC says more information about booster shots for the COVID-19 vaccine is expected from federal regulators over the next week or so. Dr. Nirav Shah said it's unclear at this point when boosters are necessary and for whom.

"Although there's a lot of discussion and a lot of questions around boosters, boosters are not a medical emergency. They are important. But they are not the pathway out of the pandemic at this point," Shah said.

The pathway out of the pandemic, he said, is getting vaccinated in the first place. A record 42 people in Maine are being treated for COVID-19 on ventilators and 192 people total are hospitalized, including two children.