PORTLAND, Maine — A coronavirus outbreak at the largest long-term care facility in the state has infected 56 clients and staff.
Thirty-nine residents and 17 staff have tested positive for the virus at the Barron Center, a city-operated senior-living facility, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The cases have accrued in the past two months as community transmission has spiked this winter.
The outbreak has strained the ability to staff the facility, which provides nursing and rehabilitation services to 138 residents at a complex in Portland’s Nasons Corner neighborhood.
Barron Center officials have worked on staffing and bed management, and have trained nursing assistants per the state’s emergency staffing plan, according to city spokesperson Jessica Grondin. They have consolidated various units in the facility to more easily staff residents.
The spokesperson did not indicate how many full-time staff members are at the facility.
Nursing homes, assisted-living and other long-term care facilities have seen the largest outbreaks in the state since the pandemic began, and have grown more frequent as the winter progresses.
The CDC’s ongoing outbreak investigation at the facility opened Nov. 21, 2020. The agency also investigated a COVID-19 outbreak there on May 30, 2020 with one resident and three staff testing positive for the virus.
Correction: A previous version of this article misidentified the Portland neighborhood that the Barron Center is in.