Maine Places Order for Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccines Arriving in Week 12

AUGUSTA— The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced today that the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC) has placed its first order (PDF) for doses of the newly authorized Johnson & Johnson one-shot COVID-19 vaccine for 11,500 people, to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Operation Warp Speed.

Additionally, the Maine CDC learned Sunday that

the Federal government will supplement the state allotment by sending an additional 3,500 Johnson & Johnson doses to another Maine entity that will be announced shortly. Another 1,000 doses of Moderna vaccine will be sent to Penobscot Community Health Care, a Federally qualified health center (FQHC) that is vaccinating underserved populations.

Altogether, this means 55,060 Pfizer and Moderna first doses and, in the case of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, only doses will arrive in Maine this week – more than double the doses available two weeks ago. This does not count the second doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccine that are also arriving.

Maine CDC's order reflects the maximum number of doses available to Maine for new vaccines.

• Combined with the previous orders, Maine expects to have enough to vaccinate approximately 295,555 people in the first 12 weeks of distribution, including the U.S. pharmacy and FQHC distributed doses.
• As of February 28, 349,840 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been given to health care workers, long-term care residents and staff, and older Mainers, including 228,274 people who have received first doses and 121,566 people who have received second doses.
• The dashboard on Maine’s COVID-19 vaccination website shows that 17 percent of Maine residents have gotten their first doses. This includes 66 percent of Maine residents age 70 and older.

• According to the Bloomberg vaccine tracker, Maine ranks 17th among states in the highest percent of first doses administered to its residents.

"We are committed to using this new vaccine supply quickly to protect those most at risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 in Maine," said DHHS Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew. "The one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine opens new doors to doing so."

"We welcome the newly authorized Johnson & Johnson vaccine,"said Dr. Nirav D. Shah, Director of the Maine CDC. “It adds an important tool in our efforts to vaccinate Maine people most at risk of death or severe symptoms from COVID-19.”

“As the largest community health center in Maine, PCHC is uniquely positioned to serve vulnerable, marginalized and rural populations, and we’ve concentrated our efforts so far on the elderly, and those who may have challenges traveling to mass vaccination sites in urban areas,” said Lori Dwyer, President and CEO of Penobscot Community Health Care. “We’ve even made visits to the homebound from Greater Bangor to Millinocket and Medway. This allocation of vaccine will allow us to serve even more Mainers.”

The 11,500 doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine that Maine can allocate will be sent to hospitals (3,300), independent pharmacies and public health nursing clinics to vaccinate hard-to-reach older Mainers (2,700), emergency medical services for public clinics (3,000), and outpatient sites (2,500). Doses going to some locations will be distributed to a consortia of sites, specifically in Washington, Aroostook, and northern Penobscot counties. Special clinics will also vaccinate people in Somerset and York counties this week, with more on the way. Tomorrow, the large vaccination clinics in Sanford and Portland are open for vaccination as well.

These new vaccines come after Governor Mills announced that Maine residents age 60 and older are eligible for vaccination beginning March 3, 2021. To save lives and ensure that health care providers can efficiently and quickly vaccinate as many people as possible, Governor Mills also announced Friday that Maine will adopt an age-based approach to expanding vaccine eligibility. The planned schedule, which is subject to change depending on fluctuations in vaccine supply including an acceleration if supply increases, is as follows:

• March 3: Eligibility expands to residents age 60 and older
• April: Eligibility expands to age 50 and older
• May: Eligibility expands to age 40 and older
• June: Eligibility expands to age 30 and older
• July and beyond: Ages 29 and under, including children pending authorization of a vaccine for them

Some people in Maine may be vaccinated outside of this schedule as a last resort option in order to prevent the extremely limited supply of vaccine from going to waste. The State is committed to vaccinating Maine people as quickly and efficiently as possible. The vaccine distribution framework will continue to evolve as vaccine supply changes and with continued input from health care providers and communities throughout Maine.

Maintaining a focus on older residents remains critical to saving lives. Additional information on vaccination for Maine people is available at Maine’s COVID-19 vaccine website.

The State is committed to vaccinating with equity at high velocity and not wasting any doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. This means that some individuals are vaccinated before others and not always precisely in the order of the Phases in the Maine vaccine plan. That said, the work will not stop until every resident in Maine who wants and needs a vaccine gets one.

Maine's planning for COVID-19 vaccine distribution began in the spring of 2020. The vaccine distribution framework will continue to evolve with the changing vaccine supply and continued input from health care providers and various communities throughout Maine.