Evelyn Kellerman, 2, begins to cry as she is vaccinated by nurse Sarah Fabian and held by her mother, Jennifer Kellerman, at Mid Coast Pediatrics, part of Mid Coast Hospital, on Tuesday. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer
Two vaccination clinics have opened in southern Maine for preschool-aged children who became eligible for COVID-19 vaccines over the weekend.
The York County Emergency Management Agency is operating a clinic in the former Marshalls Building at 1364 Main St. in Sanford on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1-6 p.m., and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. No appointments are needed. The clinic is staffed by clinicians, first responders and staff from municipalities across York County, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Mid-Coast Hospital in Brunswick is having a vaccine clinic Wednesday and Thursday of this week from 4:30-7 p.m. Appointments are required and can be made at vaccine.MaineHealth.org.
It wasn’t clear if more clinics would open in other areas. The initial doses of vaccines for preschoolers are being distributed to pediatricians’ offices and pharmacies, according to the CDC.
State officials are encouraging parents to contact a pediatrician or family care provider to arrange vaccinations. Some pediatricians have already begun giving the shots, and more physicians are expected to begin doing so next week.
Two different vaccines are being provided, one made by Pfizer and the other by Moderna. Both require follow-up shots and public health officials are urging parents to make sure their children get all their shots this summer.
Pfizer’s vaccine is one-tenth of the adult dose and requires three shots, the first two administered three weeks apart and the last at least three months later. Moderna’s vaccine, a quarter the strength of its adult version, requires two shots about four weeks apart.
Meanwhile, Maine reported another decrease in the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 Wednesday.
There were 115 patients statewide on Wednesday morning, including 17 in critical care and three on ventilators, according to the Maine CDC. The overall number is down from 120 on Tuesday and down from 205 a month ago.
The state also reported 249 additional cases Wednesday in the first update in four days. The seven-day average dropped to 146 cases per day, although it was not clear if all the positive tests submitted over the holiday weekend had been added to the count.
Since the pandemic began, Maine has recorded 267,956 cases and 2,409 deaths, according to the most recent state data.
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