This post has been updated.
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Northern Light A.R. Gould Hospital in Presque Isle received the first shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday morning, just days after the vaccine was granted emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
A.R. Gould Hospital is one of the first hospitals in Maine to receive the vaccine and the first in Aroostook County. It’s a positive sign for a region that has seen a high rate of new infections after going most of the year relatively untouched by the virus.
The vaccine shipment arrived at the hospital at around 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday. It contained 975 doses, 565 of which will be used by A.R. Gould. The rest will be shared with MaineHealth, A.R. Gould communications manager Karen Gonya said Wednesday.
A.R. Gould employees will be the first people in Aroostook County to receive the vaccines during a 5-8 p.m. clinic on Wednesday. Employees will receive the dose in a tiered system, with those at highest risk of exposure to the virus — including the emergency department and specialty intensive care unit — receiving the first doses.
Residents at the Northern Light Continuing Care facility in Mars Hill will receive the vaccine on Thursday, Gonya said. Nursing homes have been some of the hardest hit locations during the COVID-19 pandemic, with four residents dying in a recent outbreak at Presque Isle Rehab and Nursing Center.
On Tuesday, Maine Medical Center in Portland and Southern Maine Health Care in Biddeford became the first hospitals to administer COVID-19 vaccines to their frontline workers.
On Monday, Houlton Regional Hospital CEO Shawn Anderson said his hospital would receive the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine once it was approved by the U.S. FDA.
The vaccines arrive at Aroostook County’s largest hospital as COVID-19 cases surge across The County, a region that did not have a single active COVID-19 case at the end of September. There were 194 active cases in Aroostook County as of Tuesday, according to Maine CDC data.
While Aroostook County has the second lowest overall rate of cases since the pandemic began (Piscataquis County has had the lowest) , its current active case rate of 28.9 per 10,000 places is the 10th highest out of Maine’s 16 counties.
There are three active COVID-19 outbreaks in the Presque Isle area: one at Presque Isle Rehab and Nursing Center that has killed four and infected 27, an outbreak at Zippel Elementary School in Presque Isle that has infected five and one at Presque Isle High School that has infected four.
