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There have been no new coronavirus cases for 15 days at the Augusta rehab facility that was the site of Maine’s largest coronavirus outbreak, making it the second nursing home in a week to reach what the state’s top public health official has called an “epidemiological milestone.”
The Augusta Center for Health and Rehabilitation had recorded 48 cases among residents and 28 among staff since the outbreak began in early April. But as of Thursday, the facility had no active cases. Seven residents died, and the remainder of those infected had recovered, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah said.
[Our COVID-19 tracker contains the most recent information on Maine cases by county]
Most residents who were infected were asymptomatic, said Genevieve Worthington, chief marketing officer for the Augusta center’s parent company, National Health Care Association. More than two-thirds of residents tested positive at some point.
The Augusta center joins one other Maine long-term care facility that was the site of a coronavirus outbreak that has no remaining active cases. The Maine CDC said earlier this week that The Commons at Tall Pines no longer had active cases.
The CDC made the announcement about both facilities after neither recorded a new case in more than two weeks.
Long-term care facilities and other congregate living settings have been hard hit by COVID-19.
More than half of Maine’s 69 coronavirus deaths so far have been nursing home residents.
The recovery of residents and staff at long-term care facilities is in line with the increasing number of people who have recovered from COVID-19 across the state. Overall, 40 percent of infected residents at long-term care facilities have recovered from the virus, Shah said earlier this week.
The Augusta Center for Health and Rehabilitation continues to work with the Maine CDC to prevent infections, Shah said Thursday.
Watch: Should you remove loved ones from care facilities during the outbreak?
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