Health

Maine has more doses of the Pfizer vaccine than expected. According to the state CDC, hospitals have been able to extract at least one extra dose per vial. That means the state has about 20% more of a vaccine that’s in high demand and limited supply.

The rollout of Maine’s first COVID-19 vaccinations for high risk health workers gained momentum today. About half a dozen hospitals are now running clinics, and by midday, the state CDC reported that close to 500 health care workers had received their first dose.

Vaccinations for COVID-19 began in Maine on Tuesday. Frontline workers at Maine Medical Center in Portland and Southern Maine Health Care in Biddeford were the first to receive doses. It’s the beginning of a massive effort to get the pandemic under control, and a bright spot for health care workers as the case and death count keeps climbing.

The first 2,000 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Maine Monday morning at Northern Light’s Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and Mercy Hospitals in Portland.

Vaccine preparations are underway at long-term care facilities across the country, where workers and the most at-risk residents are supposed to be the first to get the shots as early as next week.

The first shipments for a COVID-19 vaccine are expected to arrive in Maine next week, and the Mills administration announced on Friday that it has submitted a request for a second allotment.

Three months into this a year, the vast majority of Maine’s public schools have managed to reopen classrooms, and health officials say they remain relatively safe — but as COVID-19 case numbers rise in Maine, schools are now facing shortages of teachers and other staff.