State officials announced Friday that people 50 and older may be vaccinated starting Tuesday, and all adults are eligible starting April 19.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday reported 220 cases of the novel coronavirus and no additional deaths, ending a week where state officials pushed forward their vaccine timetable to include all adults starting April 19. State officials on Friday also announced that people 50 and older may receive doses starting Tuesday, anticipating increased federal shipments of COVID-19 vaccines. Before, the schedule called for people in their 50s to become eligible on April 1. Maine’s cumulative COVID-19 cases rose to 48,292 on Saturday. Of those,37,310 have been confirmed by testing and 10,982 are considered probable cases of COVID-19. The seven-day average of new daily cases was 205.1 on Saturday. Seven hundred twenty-eight people have died with COVID-19 since the pandemic began in Maine. The Biden administration has announced plans to deliver enough doses to make all Americans eligible by May 1, leading Maine and other states to accelerate their schedules. “Maine has been working around the clock to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible,” Gov. Janet Mills said in a news release Friday. “As we continue to make progress, and with more appointments becoming available and an increase in supply expected in the coming weeks, we believe it is appropriate to accelerate our timeline and make more people eligible earlier.” Mills warned Mainers that appointments might not immediately be available to everyone newly eligible, as the system expands to take on more capacity.
