SANFORD, Maine — MaineHealth, York County Emergency Management Agency and the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC) welcomed patients into a new COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the former Marshall’s location at 1364 Main Street in Sanford Tuesday.
To start, the clinic will operate every day except Tuesdays from 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. MaineHealth will add additional hours as more vaccine becomes available. When fully supplied, MaineHealth says the clinic will be able to vaccinate up to 1,000 people each day.
The clinic will be staffed by vaccinators, clinicians, and support personnel from Southern Maine Health Care (SMHC), part of MaineHealth, and York County emergency management agencies and municipalities. The SMHC Vaccine Clinic at Sanford Medical Center (formally Goodall Hospital) has transitioned its operations and staff to the Main Street location.
The transformation of the site from a retail store to a high-volume vaccine clinic included deep cleaning and the installation of new furniture, equipment, and IT infrastructure, according to MaineHealth.
“This clinic will make a big difference in our efforts to vaccinate our community,” Dr. Michael Albaum, chief medical officer of Southern Maine Health Care, said. “The new space and the partnership with York Emergency Management and Maine CDC will significantly expand the number of patients we can vaccinate on a daily and weekly basis.”
The Sanford clinic is scheduled to operate for the next six months, with the potential to operate longer. Vaccines are available by appointment only. MaineHealth is currently offering vaccine appointments in accordance with guidelines from the state. Patients seeking a vaccination can pre-register by calling the MaineHealth COVID-19 Vaccine Assistant at 1-877-780-7545. More information about how to get a vaccine through MaineHealth is available on the MaineHealth website.
“Our Incident Management Team (IMT) has stood up several clinics to vaccinate York County’s first responder community,” Art Cleaves, director of York County Emergency Management, said. “The collaboration with SMHC, along with the IMT and volunteers from the 29 towns and local businesses, will allow us to speed along the vaccination process for our citizens which is one very important piece of helping to get us out of this pandemic.”
“This large-scale community vaccination clinic is one more step toward our goal of getting shots into the arms of Maine people as quickly and fairly as possible,” Dr. Nirav D. Shah, director of the Maine CDC, said. “As our federal partners increase vaccine allocations to Maine, we will have the infrastructure in place to increase capacity and vaccinate more southern Maine residents. We thank MaineHealth and York County Emergency Management Agency for their partnership.”
As vaccination continues, MaineHealth and the Maine CDC say Maine people should continue wearing masks, washing hands frequently, keeping a safe distance from others, and avoiding crowds.