PORTLAND, Maine (AP) Booster shots for Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are expected to be available in about three weeks in Maine.
People will be eligible for booster shots after at least eight months have passed since getting their second dose, said Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
But he told Maine Public that the focus continues to be getting first shots into the arms of unvaccinated Mainers.
The likelihood of contracting COVID-19 is eight times higher, and the likelihood of being hospitalized is seven times higher, for unvaccinated people compared with those who’ve received the vaccination, he said.
Dr. Dora Anne Mills, chief health improvement officer at MaineHealth, said the delta variant of COVID-19 is “pushing our hospitals to the limit.”
Maine Medical Center has been holding up to 50 patients per day in the emergency department as they awaited hospital beds.
“Surges caused by the delta strain of the COVID-19 virus are not letting up. This means we may be several weeks away from reaching a peak. Yet our hospitals are already full,” she wrote in a social media post.
