Reasons behind central and western Maine’s lagging COVID-19 vaccination rates remains unclear

Steven Charles, director of pharmacy at Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway, prepares a syringe of COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday before students arrive for a clinic at Poland Regional High School. The first dose of vaccine was offered to students Tuesday and another clinic to administer first doses will be held Thursday from 8 to 11 a.m. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal Buy this Photo

LEWISTON – The seven-day average of daily new COVID-19 cases in central and western Maine are at their lowest levels since late March, but the gap in vaccine uptake continues to widen among residents in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties and the rest of the state.

State health officials Wednesday reported 162 new COVID-19 cases, including 14 in Androscoggin County, two in Franklin County and nine in Oxford County. The rolling average of new cases over a seven-day period was 19.9 in Androscoggin County, 2.4 in Franklin County and seven in Oxford County. Statewide, the average was 142.7 cases per day on Wednesday.

Average cases in Androscoggin and Franklin counties have not dipped below Wednesday’s numbers since late March. Before this week, when there was a slight dip in cases in Oxford County, the last time the county’s seven-day average of daily new cases was below seven was Feb. 26.

Even as case numbers decline, the three counties are still plagued with lower vaccination rates than most of the state. On Wednesday, the state reported 50.8% of all Mainers had completed their COVID-19 inoculations and 52.6% had received at least one dose of a vaccine. Cumberland County had the highest vaccination rate statewide in terms of both first and final shots, with 61% of all residents having received the latter.

Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties pale in comparison, with just 42.9%, 43% and 42.4% of all residents, respectively, having gotten their final jabs.

It is unclear the cause behind the region’s lower vaccination rates: whether it is an issue of access, hesitancy toward the vaccine, a combination of the two or another issue entirely.

In Lewiston and Auburn alone, which have been designated by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention as having high numbers of unvaccinated residents, there are a combined 14 vaccination sites between the two cities.

A mobile vaccination unit run by Promerica Health in collaboration with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and the city of Lewiston parked in the city’s municipal parking lot on Oak Street for five days earlier this month, where it offered the Moderna vaccine by appointment and walk-in.

The clinic had the ability to administer 1,000 shots during its tour there, according to a news release from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Providers administered only a fraction of that: 168 shots.

It then spent two days in Poland, where only 32 people got a shot. After stops in Freeport and New Gloucester, it is returning to Lewiston for two days this week at the Pathway Vineyard Church at 12 Foss Road. The clinic will be open Thursday from 1 to 7 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

This is the first time a mobile vaccination clinic in Maine is stopping at a house of worship. There is another mobile unit that is run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The Promerica unit will return to the same locations for second inoculations later in June.

Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah said at a media briefing Wednesday that the “guiding principle” of the mobile vaccination units is to go to areas where there are lower than average vaccination rates or high numbers of people that remain unvaccinated.

The state also launched an initiative that allows organizations to request an on-site clinic where there are at least 10 people who need a vaccination.

“We think that will be a strategy that will help,” Shah said.

DHHS Commissioner Dr. Jeanne Lambrew added that a high number of those who opted in to Maine’s “Your Shot to Get Outdoors” incentive program were residents from Androscoggin County and that 75% of them were 50 years and younger.

The program ends Memorial Day, after which Lambrew said her department will take a “good, hard look” at its outcomes.

A representative from Central Maine Healthcare, which runs the high-volume vaccination site at the Auburn Mall, said that it has no plans to shut down the site even as other mass vaccination clinics across the state have done so.

“We might evaluate the hours and bring them down a little bit. But we still have quite a few of our community members that need vaccinations,” Amy Lee, vice president and chief operating officer for Central Maine Medical Group, said Tuesday.

“As a good community partner, it just makes sense to have the mall (site) in some capacity stay active,” Lee said.

As of Tuesday, there were 31 outbreak sites as defined by the Maine CDC in the region. There are 22 in Androscoggin County, three in Franklin County and six in Oxford County. All but one of the sites are in ZIP codes the Maine CDC lists as having a high number of unvaccinated residents.

Schools account for 24 of the outbreak sites, which include six schools in Lewiston, four in Auburn, two in Lisbon, two in Poland, two in South Paris, and one each in Durham, Lisbon Falls, Turner, Farmington, Jay, Norway, Oxford and Rumford.

There are four long-term care facilities: d’Youville Pavillion, Montello Manor and Woodlands Memory Care in Lewiston and Sandy River Nursing Center in Farmington.

Two of the sites are businesses: ND Paper Mill in Rumford and Taco Bell on Center Street in Auburn. There is one child care facility, Rhymes and Reasons in Greene.