AUGUSTA, Maine — Health care workers would no longer need to receive the COVID-19 vaccine under a proposed change from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.
The department filed a proposed rule change Tuesday with the secretary of state’s office that would remove the COVID-19 vaccine from the list of required immunizations for workers in health care facilities.
The change was proposed “based on available clinical and epidemiological data about COVID-19, increased population immunity resulting from vaccination and prior infections, decreasing disease severity, improved treatments, and declining infection and death rates,” the administration of Gov. Janet Mills said in a news release.
It follows the federal government removing a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for health care workers in early June. DHHS said the rule change should get published next week and adopted by the end of 2023 following a public comment period.
Health care providers remain free to implement their own COVID-19 vaccination requirements.
DHHS said the state’s Board of Emergency Medical Services will also revisit the existing vaccine requirements for EMS workers at an Aug. 2 meeting.
Maine is one of four states that still have some type of COVID-19 vaccine requirement. Hundreds of health care workers left their jobs in the days following Maine’s mandate taking effect in late 2021, a period that was followed by a COVID-19 surge that challenged hospitals.
The overall effect of the mandate on health care settings was unclear, and employment rebounded slightly in hospitals and other health care settings throughout 2022.
DHHS said Maine has been “consistently rated among the top states in the country on vaccination and among the lowest on COVID-19 deaths,” while also currently ranking third for overall bivalent booster vaccination and first for vaccinating residents 65 and older.
“Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Maine has followed the science in developing policies to limit the spread of the virus,” said Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew. “Today, a robust body of evolving evidence tells us that this requirement achieved its goals of saving lives and protecting health at a crucial time.”
The health department said it will partner with Maine health care providers to encourage voluntary vaccination of workers and residents, with DHHS investing $250,000 to extend an awareness campaign that began in 2021 through April 2024 and broaden its reach to include long-term care residents.
The state’s major health care groups — the Maine Hospital Association, Maine Medical Association and Maine Health Care Association — said in the Tuesday news release they each support the move to end the vaccine mandate.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to recommend that residents 6 months and older, including health care workers, remain up to date on the COVID-19 vaccine.
The debate over vaccine requirements for health care staff and employees in other industries has played out throughout the country since the pandemic began in 2020. In Maine, the Democratic-controlled Legislature defeated several Republican bills this session that sought to end COVID-19 vaccine requirements or restore religious and philosophical exemptions.
Lawmakers in both parties, however, approved a plan earlier this year for a 13-member commission to review Maine’s response to the pandemic.
