MAINE, USA — If you are waiting your turn for a COVID-19 vaccine, there is a way to set up an appointment right now for when you become eligible.
Maine EMS has set up a system for Mainers to sign up right now as long as they are age-eligible by the date of the appointment.
Here is how it works: Click here or go to your town's Facebook page to see if it has the link and choose your location and see if any appointments are available.
If you are part of the 16+ group that becomes eligible on April 19, you can see if any appointments are available after that day and sign up.
Maine EMS Director Sam Hurley said they wanted to do this to meet the needs in small communities and push out the vaccine.
“We want to make sure all of our appointments are taken. We don’t want there to be a single vaccine sitting on our shelves ever. So, if we can make it available to anyone who is eligible, so, if you become eligible on that May 1 date, we want to make sure that anyone who is eligible to be able to book one of those appointments because we do not want to be sitting around with doses on our shelves,” Hurley said.
Hurley said all of the vaccination sites for this system are managed by Maine EMS and will most likely have the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. He also said if you want to try this out, do it sooner than later because this system will be absorbed by the state’s website by the end of the week. The CDC says the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is for people 18 and older.
He also said appointments are expected to be booked quickly, but he said they will be adding new ones in the future.
The Maine CDC said it has worked with EMS throughout the vaccination process.