PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Following a month of public vaccination clinics, Jay Reynolds, family medicine physician at Northern Light A.R. Gould Hospital, said if enough people in central Aroostook receive their second COVID-19 shots in the coming months, the region could see some return to normalcy by the end of May.
Since beginning the public clinics at Northern Maine Community College in late January, the hospital has distributed 8,500 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to their employees, other community healthcare workers and people aged 70 and older, most of whom are from central Aroostook.
Because Aroostook’s population is smaller than most other Maine counties, Reynolds expects Aroostook to reach the benchmark for vaccine distribution sooner than President Joe Biden’s plan to have enough Americans vaccinated by the end of July.
“I think we’ll be done months sooner, possibly at the end of May,” Reynolds said.
According to the state’s COVID vaccination dashboard on Wednesday, 16.9 percent of people in Aroostook County have received their vaccines.
The dashboard, based on 2019 census data that estimates Aroostook’s population as 67,055, also indicated that 18,149 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been distributed countywide, with 11,374 being of the first dose and 6,775 of the final dose.
Reynolds said the census population total includes 50,000 adults and 20,000 children, the latter of whom cannot be vaccinated if they are under 16. If Aroostook County wants to begin returning to a pre-pandemic world sooner rather than later, he said, CDC guidance suggests at least 60 percent of the population will have to be vaccinated.
“If we want to vaccinate 60 percent of our population, we’ll need to vaccinate 30,000 people,” Reynolds said. “We’re already one third of the way completed.”
A.R. Gould typically receives anywhere from 500 to 2,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines weekly. In earlier weeks, the local allotment was usually not enough to justify scheduling more than two clinics per week. But as federal supply has increased, so has the hospital’s allotment.
“So far the amount of weekly vaccine doses has been the biggest limiting factor, but we’ve seen the amount increase in the last four weeks,” Reynolds said.Â
There are no plans right now to add clinic locations. As more and more people age 70 and older have received vaccinations, fewer people have registered for clinics.
Still, A.R. Gould will not know when they can open clinics to people age 65 and older or other groups, including those with pre-existing conditions or jobs in retail and grocery stores, until the Maine CDC gives approval for those groups to begin receiving the vaccine.
As more people in the 70 and older group receive their second doses of the vaccines, Reynolds expects the expansion to people age 65 and older will come soon.
“It took us five days to fill 121 out of 582 spots for our next clinic on Tuesday, whereas our early clinics filled up in one hour. I have a feeling we’re reaching the end of the 70-plus group,” Reynolds said. “I don’t know exactly when we can open it up to 65, but perhaps in the next week or two.”
A.R. Gould continues to hold clinics on Tuesdays and Fridays for anyone in the current age group who has not received a vaccine yet or needs to receive their second dose. People can register at https://covid.northernlighthealth.org/ or by calling Northern Light Health’s vaccine hotline at 207-204-8551.
Reynolds said so far, no one has reported major side effects from either vaccine. He has been encouraging as many people as possible to get vaccinated and do their part in moving Aroostook County past the pandemic.
“The 95 percent effectiveness rate [of the COVID vaccines] is about the same level of effectiveness as the vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella, diseases that you and I don’t hear about anymore,” Reynolds said. “Social distancing is the least effective tool we have at preventing spread compared to these vaccines.”
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that 27 percent of Aroostook County’s population has received the COVID-19 vaccines. The correct data is 16.9 percent.
