Teachers and school staff members in Maine are now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine following a directive from President Joe Biden this week.
During a news briefing Thursday, Maine Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew said that Gov. Janet Mills is still committed to the age-based strategy for the vaccine she announced last week. But the new directive from President Biden requires pharmacies that receive doses directly from the federal government to now dedicate all open slots to school staff, no matter their age.
“In Maine, that’s Walmart, Walgreens and Hannaford. They must exclusively offer all unfilled appointments to this new eligibility group. It doesn’t mean that anybody who has an appointment now gets it canceled,” she says.
In addition to pharmacies, Lambrew says school staffers of any age can also seek appointments at clinics run by hospitals and outpatient groups. And the state is also creating dedicated clinics for school staff ages 60 and older.
“Last week, before President Biden made this announcement about teachers and school staff, Gov. Mills did announce that we did want to make sure those older teachers — those who are age-eligible — people ages 60 and older who work in schools, who teach in schools, we wanted to offer them a special dedicated one-time opportunity to get a vaccine shot,” she says.
Details on those clinics may be released as early as Friday.
Opening up eligibility to school staff adds an additional 50,000 people in line to get the vaccine, on top of the 200,000 Mainers in their 60s who are newly eligible. And it comes at a time when Maine is seeing a reduction in its supply of doses.
Still, President Biden announced this week that all adults in the U.S. will be vaccinated by the end of May. When asked whether Maine can meet that goal, state CDC Director Nirav Shah gave a dose of reality.
“It may not be the end of May. There are so many things, for example, like vaccine supply, which still remains at a premium. So we are still waiting to see what that supply pipeline looks like, and simultaneously try to build as much vaccination architecture as we can here in Maine. So when we start getting more doses, which we’re expecting, we’ve got vaccinators ready to go to get them into arms,” he says.
State officials caution that appointments for school staff may not be immediately available. Pharmacies may not have openings till late next week. And hospital-based sites and other clinics are working to adjust their registration systems.
