Our teams at the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, the Maine CDC, and health care providers and volunteers around the state have been working 24/7 to get shots in arms to protect all of you from the COVID-19 virus. As a result, Maine ranks among the top states in the country for getting shots into arms.
Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.
As of this date, almost 500,000 people have received their first shot of vaccine – more than 42 percent of Maine people age 16 and up, with more than 30 percent being fully vaccinated.
This is really good news and we should all celebrate, but of course the pandemic is not yet over. We are still in a race of vaccinations versus the variants. Look what’s going on in some other states where the variants are taking over. We’ve got to get everybody vaccinated as soon as possible. Those variants are here in Maine – they are in southern Maine, in western Maine, they are spreading to every region of the state. And they are more transmissible and more dangerous versions of this horrible virus.
So when President Biden committed to deploying federal resources to help states getting shots into arms, we took him up on his offer. This week we worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to create a groundbreaking mobile vaccination unit that will reach rural and underserved communities across Maine.
The mobile vaccination unit, only the second of its kind in New England, will begin providing COVID-19 vaccines to Maine people starting Monday, April 12 at the Oxford Casino in Oxford.
The mobile vaccination unit will then go to Windham, Biddeford, Fryeburg, Turner, Waterville, Old Town, Milbridge, Calais, Madawaska and Auburn over the next two months. And they will be vaccinating at least 250 people each day with the one-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
Information on scheduling appointments at the mobile vaccination unit will become available on our state vaccination website maine.gov/covid19/vaccines. Look for that in the next few days.
Maine has worked hard to stand up large-scale vaccination sites and provide vaccine to independent health care providers and to Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) in underserved areas, dispatching public health nurses to clinics throughout the state to meet the needs of at-risk Maine people who can’t easily travel to large-scale community vaccination clinics, and providing in-home vaccination to homebound people.
This mobile vaccination clinic is one more important tool for our state as we work to get shots into arms as fast as we can.
The clinic will complement our existing vaccination efforts very well and it will allow people in underserved communities to more easily get the vaccine so as to protect their health and their loved ones and family members and help us to win the fight against COVID-19.
I am very grateful to President Biden for his commitment to partnering with states to get people vaccinated and I’m grateful to FEMA for their outstanding work to deliver on that promise.
So to all Maine people ages 16 and up who are now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine — please don’t wait to schedule your appointment. The vaccine — whether you get Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson and Johnson — is safe, effective, and it is saving lives. All of these vaccines have been through rigorous trials, approved by the FDA.
For information on where to get a vaccine visit maine.gov/covid19/vaccines. If you don’t have access to a computer or the internet, you can call our Community Vaccination Line at 1-888-445-4111.
That is 1-888-445-4111. And most health care facilities also have a referral for vaccination appointments.
Please keep the faith and stay safe. We will get through this together.
This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.