Maine now has 275 cases of coronavirus, an increase of 22 cases since Sunday, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday.
Forty-nine have been hospitalized at some point during their illness, but there have been no additional deaths since the weekend, when two people died, bringing the total to three. In addition, 6,088 people who have tested negative, said Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in a briefing Monday.
“That is a snapshot of a very fast moving train – a train that is gaining acceleration as more and more commercial labs are running more and more tests,” Shah said.
He said 41 people have been released from isolation, and 43 of the positive cases are health care workers. Shah said the CDC is investigating potential exposures in their workplaces. Penobscot County now has 12 cases, he added, and the agency is looking into whether community transmission is taking place.
Referring to critical health care equipment, Shah said Maine now has 146 intensive care beds of which 92 are available, and 309 ventilators, of which 253 are available. In addition, Maine has 87 “alternative ventilators” approved for use by the federal government.
There are three positive cases at a group home in Freeport, Shah said, and also cases in Leeds. Shah cited recent scientific papers highlighting the risks to people in congregate settings, such as nursing homes or shelters.
“Recent date suggests that when COVID-19 is introduced into those settings, it can spread very quickly,” he said.
He said when Maine CDC learns of a case in such a setting it notifies the facility of the case and that a CDC epidemiologist will conduct an investigation. It also asks the facility to notify resident, staff and family members.
CDC also asks managers to consider shutting down to visitors and pursue aggressive sanitizing of the facility, he said.
A woman in her 80s and a man in his 60s, both from Cumberland County, were the second and third people in the state to die from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Video of today’s news conference starts at the 7:40 mark.
The man was a longtime employee of the Maine Department of Transportation, the agency said in a news release Sunday afternoon. The woman has not been identified.
The DOT employee recently had gone on vacation – the agency did not say where – and didn’t return to work afterward, so the danger of infection among his co-workers is low, officials said.
Maine reported its first coronavirus fatality on Friday – a Cumberland County man in his 80s. Forty-one people had recovered as of Sunday.
As of late Sunday morning, the virus, which is particularly dangerous to older people and those with compromised immune systems, had reached 12 of Maine’s 16 counties.
Public health officials are warning all Mainers, however, to take precautions, even if cases haven’t been officially diagnosed in their counties yet.
FIRST CASE IN SOMERSET COUNTY
As coronavirus spreads across the state, the Maine CDC is trying to acquire the medicine and equipment needed to treat patients and keep health workers safe.
A shipment of chemicals for testing recently arrived – enough for 3,000 patients – but even more will be needed, Maine CDC’s director, Dr. Nirav Shah, said last week.
Shah has cautioned that a sharp rise in cases over a day is not long-term enough for epidemiologists to draw conclusions about a trend in an outbreak. Still, he said in a Twitter post that Saturday’s 43-case increase was “concerning.”
As of Saturday morning, @MEPublicHealth is reporting 211 individuals with #COVID19 statewide, an increase of 43 since yesterday. This is concerning and drives home the fact that #coronavirus is circulating in #Maine. https://t.co/UqG3t2LWHF
— Nirav D. Shah (@nirav_mainecdc) March 28, 2020
Maine has taken emergency measures, closing schools and “nonessential” businesses and encouraging residents to stay indoors, except for such activities as grocery shopping and physical exercise.
As concerns mount about potential transmission of the virus from out-of-state visitors, Maine planned to post messages on electronic sign boards along the Maine Turnpike that direct people coming from areas with high infection rates – such as New York – to self-quarantine for at least 14 days.
3 SUPERMARKET EMPLOYEES TEST POSITIVE
It’s not clear how state authorities will enforce that order, though some Maine residents reportedly have taken it on themselves to control the movements of people they believe to be at risk of spreading the virus. The Knox County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday investigated a report that armed Vinalhaven residents felled a tree to block the driveway of people they believed should be quarantined.
As well as medical professionals, grocery store employees have endured higher-than-average risk as they work on the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak.
The Hannaford Bros. supermarket chain learned Saturday that a worker at its Oxford store and another at its Scarborough store had tested positive for COVID-19, spokesman Eric Blom said Sunday. Neither employee had worked at the stores for several days, he said, but Hannaford still conducted a “deep and thorough cleaning” at each store. Both locations are open.
“This deep cleaning was in addition to our ongoing, rigorous sanitary practices, and those practices have been greatly expanded during the health crisis,” Blom said in an email.
Shaw’s Supermarkets said Saturday night that an employee at its Congress Street store in Portland had tested positive. The employee last worked a shift on March 23, but the chain did not provide details about the person’s role at the store.
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