Maine coronavirus cases rise to 142, and more are anticipated - Press Herald

AUGUSTA — The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Maine climbed to 142 on Wednesday, an increase of 24 since Tuesday and 100 more than one week earlier.

While the number of negative coronavirus tests also continues to climb, standing at 3,177 as of Wednesday, Maine is seeing the type of “rapid rise” in new cases playing out elsewhere prior to the peak of the disease, said Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Where Maine sits on that curve remains unknown, Shah said Wednesday, but he urged Mainers to continue minimizing exposure through social or physical distancing.

“We do anticipate and expect that this rate of increase will continue,” Shah said during his daily press briefing. “Where we are in the curve right now, based on models that we’ve seen … we are in that part of the curve where we do anticipate seeing additional cases, both in number and in geographic locations in the state.”

Cumberland County remains the hotspot for coronavirus in Maine, accounting for 87 of the 142 cases statewide. But the number of confirmed cases in York County is growing rapidly as well — up to 23 on Wednesday — and the virus has now been confirmed in 10 of Maine’s 16 counties.

Just minutes before Wednesday’s briefing, the Maine CDC lab confirmed a positive COVID-19 case in a person affiliated with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services’ office in Lewiston. In response, DHHS closed the agency’s large Lewiston office.

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DHHS Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew said she took that step to protect the health of other agency employees as well as the public. Roughly 60 percent of DHHS employees statewide were already working remotely and the department had limited the public’s use of the state’s 16 DHHS offices to dropping off paperwork.

But Lambrew acknowledged the closure of the Lewiston office will affect employees and families. Lambrew said DHHS is also implementing changes ordered by Gov. Janet Mills to expand telehealth systems that would enable the state’s health care providers to serve Maine residents remotely.

Like many other states, Maine is experiencing both a backlog of tests for COVID-19 and a potential shortage of the personal protective equipment — such as masks, gloves and surgical gowns — needed by health care workers.

Shah said there are currently about 1,300 tests waiting for processing as the Maine CDC lab gives first priority to tests for hospitalized patients as well as health care workers and first responders. The state received a shipment on Wednesday of additional chemicals that will enable more testing, Shah said, and additional commercial labs have joined the testing effort in Maine this week.

However, Shah said the state’s testing capacity is still too limited, so the CDC is moving forward with acquiring a new testing “platform” that would increase capacity.

Shah said the state has received additional supplies of protective equipment, but not enough to meet the state’s needs. He said the state is continuing to press the federal government to release more supplies, which are critically needed by health care workers.

“What we have received is not yet fully what we need, and we continue to support any moves by the federal government to increase both the supply and the speed of distribution of protective equipment from the national stockpile,” Shah said.

Maine is also asking hospitals, beginning Wednesday, to report not only their numbers of intensive care unit beds and ventilators but also their supply stocks of personal protective equipment, Shah said.

Shah emphasized that COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, differs from the flu because COVID-19 spreads more aggressively and may be from five to 20 times more fatal, based on preliminary epidemiological information. He also noted that the health care system is under stress from the coronavirus in part because many people in Maine, which has the nation’s oldest population, are already being treated for the flu.

This story will be updated.

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