This Gentlemen is Wearing a Face Mask, With a Yummy Looking Lobster On it, That His Wife Sewed for Him. He Believes That Mainers Need to Wear Face Masks for a Long Time to Continue to Combat COVID-19.

The Mills Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced yesterday a partnership to launch a ground-breaking mobile vaccination unit that will provide COVID-19 vaccinations to people in rural and under-served communities across Maine.

The mobile vaccination unit (MVU) which is only the second of its kind in New England, will begin providing COVID-19 vaccines to Maine people starting next Monday, April 12, 2021, at the Oxford Casino in Oxford.  The MVU will then travel to ten additional rural  or under-served communities across Maine – including Fryeburg, Calais and Madawaska, among others in over the next two months.  The MVU is expected to vaccinate at least 250 people per day, utilizing the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine in order to maximize efficiency.

“This mobile vaccination clinic is another important tool for our state as we work to get shots into arms as fast as we can,” said Maine Governor Janet Mills.  “The clinic will complement our existing vaccination efforts well and allow people in rural communities to more easily get the vaccine, protecting their health and that of their loved ones and helping us to win the fight against COVID-19, I am grateful to the Biden Administration for its commitment to partnering with states to get people vaccinated and to FEMA for their outstanding work to deliver on that promise.”

The Mills Administration requested FEMA’s support with Maine’s vaccination efforts after the Biden Administration committed to deploying Federal resources to assist states with getting shots into arms.  The State and FEMA ultimately pursued a mobile vaccination unit in order to achieve two primary goals:  1) to reach rural and under-served communities, and 2) to complement large and small-scale vaccination clinics already underway.

The eleven communities were determined by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, the Maine Emergency Management Agency and FEMA.