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BELFAST, Maine – A community hospital that was the epicenter of a coronavirus ‘super spreader’ event will require all staff to be vaccinated, becoming the first hospital in Maine to do so.
All staff at the Millinocket Regional Hospital will need to be fully immunized with Pfizer or Modern vaccines within six weeks of final approval from the Food and Drug Administration, officials said.
“The Millinocket Regional Hospital is committed to providing a safe working environment for all employees and the safest possible environment for patients to receive care,” said Dr. Robert Peterson, CEO of the hospital.
A marriage nearly a year ago in the Millinocket area was linked to outbreaks in at least two other places in Maine, with more than 170 people contracting the virus and seven deaths since then.
Several other hospitals in Maine are in talks over vaccine requirements after national organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American Nursing Association, urged them to do so.
Other Maine hospitals are expected to follow Millinocket in announcing vaccine mandates for employees in the near future, Steven Michaud, president of the Maine Hospital Association, told the Portland Press Herald.
In Maine, 78.8% of hospital staff were vaccinated as of June 30, according to data from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The hospital’s decision came as the highly transmissible delta variant of COVID-19 spreads across the state and country.
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