Maine Planning Online Portal Where People Can Preregister to Get COVID-19 Vaccine

As vaccinations in Maine hospitals, medical offices and nursing homes begin to ramp up, so does the planning and preparation for what vaccinating the rest of Maine's population will look like. Snapshots from other states where people are stuck in lines for hours on end doesn't appeal to the Maine CDC or any resident and thus, the state has begun work on something they hope will eliminate lines and fast-track vaccination attempts.

According to the Portland Press Herald, In the coming weeks, Maine plans to roll out an online portal where individuals can preregister for the COVID-19 vaccine. By preregistering, it'll allow Maine an understanding of where doses of the vaccine will need to be sent while also getting the required paperwork portion of the vaccination process out of the way. Both of those items will allow for a faster vaccination process, which ultimately means more people can vaccinated in a shorter amount of time.

Maine is currently still operating in Phase 1a of the vaccination process, meaning healthcare workers and residents/staff of nursing homes. Maine is scheduled to move on to Phase 1b shortly, where seniors 75 and older as well as essential frontline workers will have the vaccine available to them. That essential frontline worker general term will encompass everyone from police officers to teachers to grocery store clerks. Then it's on to Phase 1c, where the online registry would come in.

If everything goes to plan, with vaccine supply steadily being replenished and the first two phases of Maine's plan being executed efficiently, Maine will launch the online preregistration portal in the next couple weeks with vaccinations potentially beginning as soon as March.

This story will be updated to include links to the online portal when it becomes available.