Vaccine clinic in Fairfield ramps up to 1,000 doses a day

FAIRFIELD, Maine (WABI) -Thanks to an expansion of the COVID-19 clinic set up at Kennebec Valley Community College, Northern Light Inland Hospital plans to vaccinate 1,000 people on Saturday.

”It is a significant expansion and this will be our first mass clinic.” says Terri Vieira, President of Northern Light Inland Hospital in Waterville.

The hospital has administered around 1,500 doses of COVID-19 vaccine since they began holding clinics on January 26, but the jump to 1000 a day is expected to go smoothly.

“We have plenty of experience not just here with our smaller clinics but across the Northern Light System with larger clinics.”

Rick Barry, VP of Nursing and Patient Care at NLIH, says they’re ready to go. “Our goal is from the time the person enters to the time they leave is under 30 minutes for every patient.”

The clinic is in the multipurpose building at KVCC in Fairfield. With most classes currently online, campus is an ideal location for the clinic. Kevin Casey, Dean of Technology and Chief of Security for KVCC says the college jumped at the chance to help out.

“Parking is not going to be as much of an issue and there aren’t as many people around as there would have been. The campus itself is right off the highway which lends itself to access.”

Nursing students will join around 90 staff and volunteers to help with the process.

“It doesn’t count sort of towards their clinical hours but they are very interested in volunteering.” says Casey. “They’re great students.”

They’ve already received their shipment of the Moderna vaccine and are ready to start putting it in arms.

“That’s our goal to vaccinate as many arms as we possibly can as quickly as we can.” says Barry.

“If you can bring a shirt that makes it very easy to expose your arm whichever arm you want to have your vaccine in that way you don’t have to take many layers off.”

Hospital staff say they’re excited to help as everyone works toward brighter days ahead.

“Really grateful to all our community volunteers all of the staff at inland Hospital that come and help us support this event, to KVCC for being such a wonderful partner in this collaboration.”

You can call 204-8551 for an appointment, or you can sign up on online at covid.northernlighthealth.org

Copyright 2021 WABI. All rights reserved.