SCARBOROUGH, Maine (AP) - A high-volume vaccination clinic operated by MaineHealth went into operation Wednesday at the former Scarborough Downs racetrack.
MaineHealth says that eventually, the clinic will be able to administer as many as 2,000 doses per day. The first shots were administered Wednesday.
“This clinic will make a big difference in MaineHealth’s efforts to vaccinate community members as quickly and safely as possible,” said CEO Bill Caron.
Maine’s first mass COVID-19 vaccination center opened up in Bangor on Tuesday, despite snowy weather across the state. All told, 900 people were scheduled for vaccinations on the first day at The Cross Insurance Center, but the center can handle double that number.
In Scarborough, property owner Crossroads Holdings donated the facility. Crews from 41 different companies renovated the 30,000-square-foot grandstand over the course of 15 days to include clinical workrooms and refrigerated rooms to store the vaccine, as well as improved access to high-speed broadband.
The first phase of vaccinations, which is close to wrapping up, focused on health care professionals, public safety workers and residents and staff of long-term care facilities.
Maine is currently vaccinating those 70 and older, and will move later to immunize 65- to 69-year-olds, those with high-risk health conditions and essential workers.
Other pandemic-related developments:
___
THE NUMBERS
The latest average positivity rate in Maine is 3.28%. State health departments are calculating positivity rate differently across the country, but for Maine the AP calculates the rate by dividing new cases by test specimens using data from The COVID Tracking Project.
The seven-day rolling average of the positivity rate in Maine did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 5.86% on Jan. 19 to 3.28% on Feb. 2.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday the state has topped 40,000 cases of the virus since the start of the pandemic. The Maine CDC said 627 people have died.
___
SUPER BOWL
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said Maine is sending four health care workers to the Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida. The game is honoring health care workers from all over the country.
The workers are Joe Looper, an emergency department nurse at Mercy Hospital; Cathy Bean, manager of clinical and community health services at Northern Light Home Care & Hospice; Lisa Ireland, a registered nurse at RiverRidge Center; and Patrick Keaney, a pulmonary physician at Mid Coast Hospital.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.