The Maine Center for Disease Control says Maine's COVID-19 case load grew by 22 overnight to 4,548. The death toll remained unchanged at 132.At a briefing Tuesday, Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah said the number of people who have recovered from the virus now totals 3,945, an increase of 22 since Monday. That leaves 471 active cases that the state is tracking, unchanged from Tuesday.
Shah said the number of cases associated with a wedding and reception Aug. 7 in Millinocket has now grown to 134. That includes 56 people who attended the event or contracted COVID-19 from someone who did, as well as those who were exposed thirdhand.
Shah said the outbreak spread to the Maplecrest Rehab facility in Madison, where 12 cases have been diagnosed, and to the facility that houses the York County Jail, where 66 cases have turned up.
“One of the things that we have zeroed in on is we do have some concerns that face covering wearing may not have been what we would have recommended it to be. But to be candid, we’re still getting more facts around that right now,” he says.
He said the CDC is also trying to determine whether there's a link to five cases at the Calvary Baptist Church in Sanford and four cases among firefighters in three York County departments. How the outbreak spread is still under investigation, Shah said, but he said the evidence so far indicates that it originated in Penobscot County and spread to York County, rather than the other way around.
Shah said in just the past day the state has also opened investigations into cases diagnosed at two college campuses in Maine. They include three confirmed cases at the University of New England campus, and another three cases discovered at Maine Maritime Academy.
Maine DHHS Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew, who joined Shah at the briefing, said state officials continue to work with the Maine Principals Association, school superintendents and school boards on guidance for resuming school sports programs. "It's not about if schools can have sports, but when and how," Lambrew said.
She said the MPA has submitted a plan which state officials are reviewing. The goal, Lambrew said, is to "try to land on a set of guidance while keeping students, schools and their families safe."
Lambrew said Maine is also working with the state's nursing homes to comply with new federal guidelines that require the facilities to develop plans for testing by Sept. 15. She said the state has earmarked $10 million in federal funding and will provide testing devices to help facilities meet that requirement.
Lambrew said the state already offers universal testing for nursing facilities, something she said the new federal guidelines won't affect.
Shah says that nursing home outbreaks nationwide have shown that it makes sense to perform regular testing on staff versus residents.
“In most all of the settings, the virus is introduced into the facility by the employees. Through no fault of their own. Let me be clear,” he says.
The state is also launching a new online tool to connect nursing homes to job applicants in order to address staffing shortages.
Despite the recent outbreaks, Maine's positivity rate for COVID-19 remains low, Shah said, with a seven-day weighted average of .60%, "the lowest that it's been in some time."
Since the pandemic's onset, 421 people have had to be hospitalized with COVID-19 at some point during their illness. Nine people are currently hospitalized, five of them in intensive care. One person is on a ventilator.
Maine Public reporter Patty Wight contributed to this story.
Updated at 5:21 p.m., Sept. 1, 2020.
