AUBURN — Eligible individuals can get their booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic at the Auburn Mall as early as Friday, Central Maine Healthcare announced Thursday.

Booster shots are available only for those who received the Pfizer vaccine at least six months ago and only for certain groups of people. Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory committee on immunizations recommended that certain groups of people should get a booster dose. They are:

• All individuals 65 years and older

• Individuals 18 years or older in long-term care facilities

• Individuals 50-64 years with underlying medical conditions

Additionally, the U.S. CDC said individuals ages 18-49 with underlying medical conditions or at increased risk of exposure to COVID due to their “occupational or institutional” settings are also eligible to receive a booster dose but placed an emphasis on the latter groups to get their third shots.

Ann McKenney of Lewiston gives Craig Castonguay of Auburn a COVID-19 vaccine in April at the Auburn Mall. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal file

“Our site is able to easily scale up and down to meet changing demand and has done so for nearly seven months,” CMH’s vice president and chief operating officer, Amy Lee, said in a statement. CMH is the parent organization to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

The Auburn Mall clinic is accepting eligible individuals regardless of where they received their primary vaccination series (first and second dose) of the Pfizer vaccine. Walk-ins are only accepted for those who received their shots at a CMH location, including at the Auburn Mall clinic, Central Maine Medical Center, Rumford Hospital and Bridgton Hospital.

To make an appointment, visit cmhc.org/get-covid-vaccine or call the COVID-19 Vaccine Call Center at 520-2917. The clinic is open Tuesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Studies cited by the U.S. CDC of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccinations show that they remain remarkably effective in preventing infection and severe illness, but that effectiveness of the vaccine lessens over time after the second dose. Booster shots are intended to bolster protection and are the same vaccine and dosage as the initial inoculation series.

Separate from booster shots, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and CDC in August approved additional doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines for immunocompromised individuals, specifically those who have received an organ transplant or have other conditions that put them at increased risk.

Nearly 1,500 residents of the tri-county region of Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford had received a booster shot by Thursday, according to the Maine CDC. About 19,500 people statewide have gotten a booster dose.

The high-volume clinic at the Auburn Mall continues to offer the primary vaccine series of the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson shots, as well as the booster doses and additional doses for immunocompromised people.

Meanwhile, state health officials reported 925 new cases of COVID-19 in Maine on Thursday, including 49 in Androscoggin County, 22 in Franklin County and 56 in Oxford County.

As of Thursday, Franklin and Oxford counties’ seven-day rolling average of new daily cases per capita, which stood at 5.35 cases and 5.83 cases, respectively, per 10,000 residents, was higher than the average in Androscoggin County and statewide.

In Androscoggin County, there were 4.01 new cases per 10,000 residents per day over the seven-day period ending Thursday. Statewide, that number was 4.39 new cases per 10,000 residents.

Epidemiologists use a rolling average of new cases to smooth out daily blips and dips in case counts and to determine how quickly the virus is spreading in a community and which areas are hotspots.

There were no additional deaths due to COVID.

“There are some signs of optimism on the horizon. But there’s still a lot of signs for concern,” Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah said at a briefing Wednesday.

“There are some very early, way-too-preliminary, unclear signs that there might be an easing,” he said. “But I’m not taking that to the bank yet.”

The daily count of individuals hospitalized with COVID has been greater than 200 people for about two weeks. As of Thursday, 225 individuals were hospitalized in Maine, including 77 of whom were in critical care and 36 of whom were on ventilators.

Providers at CMMC cared for an average of 11 patients per day over the week ending Wednesday, according to hospital data. There were 12 COVID inpatients there as of Wednesday, two of whom were in the intensive care unit. There were no patients on ventilators.