Waldo County hospital offering COVID-19 vaccination clinic for students at Thorndike schools

Waldo County General Hospital is providing a vaccination clinic for students enrolled at the Mount View Schools complex in Thorndike at 8:30 am on Tuesday, May 18, just days after the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine gained approval for ages 12-15.

Regional School Unit 3 Superintendent Charles Brown announced the clinic to district parents and guardians in a Wednesday letter.

Part of RSU 3, the Mount View complex houses Mount View High School and Mount View Elementary School on Mount View Road in Thorndike. The district has eight schools serving students from the towns of Brooks, Freedom, Jackson, Knox, Liberty, Monroe, Montville, Thorndike, Troy, Unity and Waldo.

“It will be available to all RSU 3 students,” Brown said in a Wednesday afternoon interview. “I’m assuming it will be available to any resident child age 12 and older, but I don’t have that answer yet.”

Waldo County Hospital General, located in Belfast, is a member of Coastal Healthcare Alliance and MaineHealth.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s advisory panel met Wednesday to recommend the Pfizer vaccine for people ages 12-15. The Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine for adolescent use Monday. The two-shot Pfizer vaccine gained approval for individuals ages 16-17 in December.

The district did not hold a staff-only clinic, but staffers have gone to local clinics. Students in the district in grades K-12 are back for in-person learning four days per week, and school leaders will work with families of remote learners who wish to get the vaccine.

The second round of the Pfizer vaccine is scheduled for June 8 at the Mount View complex. Parents and guardians must fill out a consent form for students under the age of 18 who wish to receive the vaccine.

Mount View is not scheduled to host an additional first-dose clinic.

“Now, we’re putting it together,” Brown said. “We’re just providing the facility for them to do the clinic.”

Waldo County as a whole rank in the middle of the pack among the state’s 16 counties in its vaccination rate. Of the nearly 40,000 residents in the county, 42.8% have gotten their final vaccine dose, while 45.1% of residents got their first shot.