Maine Children Ages 12 and Over Eligible for Pfizer Vaccine

Maine teenagers are now eligible to receive a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

Students, in many communities, are back in school full-time, and so now is the time to start protecting them with a COVID vaccine. Maine Center for Disease Control Director Nirav Shah says, now that the U. S. Food and Drug Administration has declared the Pfizer vaccine safe and effective, it's time to include teens in the process.

This expanded authorization of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine among children comes after a thorough and expert scientific review,

Governor Janet Mills says this step will help Maine in its reopening strategy.

I encourage parents to get their children vaccinated as soon as possible to protect their health, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our state, and to help us get back to normal sooner.

Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services says action plans will be created to get youth vaccinated as soon as possible. The Maine Department of Education's color code system has given all counties in Maine a green light to return to full-time in-person learning, except for Androscoggin County, where the virus case count is still too high. They are under a yellow recommendation, which suggests a hybrid learning model with a combination of in-person and remote learning.

The state has set up a website that lists available COVID-19 vaccination clinics, where residents can get more information about where they can get the shot.

So far in Maine, 1,251,064 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered. 657,155 people have received their first dose, while 593,909 are fully vaccinated. More information can be found on the Maine COVID-19 dashboard.