On remote Maine islands, a mission to vaccinate
By Brian MacQuarrie Globe Staff,Updated March 9, 2021, 7:29 p.m.
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Registered nurse Maureen Giffin prepared vaccines for residents at Isle au Haut Town Hall on the second day of distribution. The hall served as a combination of the town offices, gym, and only library on the island.Erin Clark/Globe Staff
MATINICUS, Maine â The two dozen winter residents of Matinicus Island, give or take a few, lined up off a muddy road, distanced and masked, many wearing the plaid flannel shirts, paint-spattered jeans, and fishermanâs waders that could pass for a uniform here.
137 outer island residents get shots
MOUNT DESERT A total of 137 people – most of them over 65 – on Swan’s Island, the Cranberry Isles, Frenchboro and Isle au Haut were vaccinated against COVID-19 at the Maine Seacoast Mission’s vaccination clinics on the islands late last week.
Sixty-one of those getting shots live on Swan’s Island, where Donna Wiegle is the health officer and runs the island’s Mill Pond Health Center.
“It was fantastic,” she said of the vaccination clinic. “People could not have been happier, more grateful for the opportunity to get their vaccine out here.”
Of those getting the shots, 52 were 65 or older. Among the rest were four local firefighters, a first responder and a health care worker.
Maine Seacoast Mission’s boat will take COVID vaccines to several islands
In addition to the Cranberry Isles, Frenchboro and Swan’s Island, the organization plans to hold COVID-19 vaccination clinics on Isle au Haut, Matinicus and Monhegan.
By Dick BroomMount Desert Islander
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MOUNT DESERT The Maine Seacoast Mission, in cooperation with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Mount Desert Island Hospital, will visit Swan’s, Great Cranberry and Little Cranberry and Long islands this week to hold COVID-19 vaccination clinics for people 65 and older so that they will not have to travel to MDI or farther to get their shots.
Maine Seacoast Mission s boat, the Sunbeam, will take COVID vaccines to outer islands pressherald.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pressherald.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.