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Maine Reports An Increase Of 26 COVID-19 Cases, As Disease Continues To Spread In York County

Nick Woodward
/
Maine Public
Maine Center for Disease Control Director Dr. Nirav Shah at a coronavirus press briefing, in Augusta, March 20, 2020.

The Maine Center for Disease Control says the state has logged 4,760 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic's onset, an increase of 26 since Wednesday. The death tally remained unchanged at 134.The 26-case increase includes 31 new cases that have been diagnosed, minus cases diagnosed earlier that turned out to be negative.

At a coronavirus briefing Thursday, Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah said 15 of the new cases diagnosed in Maine in the last 24 hours were in York County, where health officials are investigating several outbreaks, including an 83-case outbreak associated with the York County Jail facility in Alfred, and 10 cases at the Calvary Baptist Church in neighboring Sanford. Two other outbreaks in Sanford are under investigation, one at the Lafayette social club and the other at the Sanford American Legion.

"The positivity rate in York County alone is 2.4 percent, four times as high as the statewide average, which is about .55 percent," Shah said.  He said the rate of new cases in York County, at eight cases for every 10,000 people, is also far higher than the state average of 2.66 cases per 10,000.

"York County raises significant epidemiological concerns," Shah said. "Since two weeks ago, we see significant differences that are trending right now in, unfortunately, the wrong direction."

Asked about how to enforce health and safety guidelines at the Calvary Baptist Church, where Pastor Todd Bell is not requiring that masks be worn, Shah said state officials have been working closely with Bell on complying with state guidance, and are "evaluating where we go from here."

Shah said the outbreak at the York County jail is linked to a wedding and reception August 7 in Millinocket, which is now associated with 161 COVID-19 cases around the state, including another outbreak at the Maplecrest rehab facility in the Somerset County town of Madison, where three of Maine's new cases were identified. 

Wednesday, Shah said health investigators are still trying to determine whether there is a link to the Millinocket event and the outbreak at the Calvary Baptist Church. Thursday, he said investigators are trying to determine whether the other outbreaks under investigation are associated in any way with the wedding. 

The question of whether and how to resume school sports amid COVID-19 came up several times during the briefing. Shah said the state's color-coded system of recommendationsfor schools — "green," "yellow" and "red" — apply to all school activities, whether in the classroom or on the field. 

Shah said York County's recent change in status from green to yellow means that there's an elevated risk of spreading the disease during all school activities "be it sports or anything else," and schools should thus apply the yellow guidelines across the board.

He said the CDC's role is to advise school departments based on a scientific analysis of risks. "The biggest scientific question is whether transmission, say, at the college level, where we've got a bit more data, has that occurred around the sport itself, or is it related to other congregations?" Shah said.

Shah noted that it's been almost six months "to the day" since Maine's first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed. "COVID-19 has been hard on all of us, but especially for those for whom things were hard to begin with," he said, encouraging everyone to reach out to someone "who you think might be struggling." 

And the new figures the Maine CDC posted Thursday indicate that 4,153 Mainers have recovered from the virus, 18 more than Wednesday. That leaves 473 active cases that the state is tracking, an increase of eight since Wednesday.

As of Thursday, eleven Mainers with COVID-19 were hospitalized, an increase of two since the previous day. Seven are in intensive care units, and three are on ventilators. Since the pandemic hit, 431 Mainers with COVID-19 have had to be hospitalized.

The next Maine CDC coronavirus briefing is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15.

Updated at 3:37 p.m. Sept. 10. 2020.

Barbara grew up in Biddeford, Maine. She earned a master’s in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s in English from the University of Southern Maine.