A COVID-19 outbreak at Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center in Bangor has infected nearly two dozen staff members and patients.
Fourteen staff members and eight patients tested positive in the outbreak, Maine Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Jackie Farwell said. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention launched an outbreak investigation on Sept. 8, she said.
It was unclear how COVID-19 came into the facility. Farwell said investigators were looking into that, but noted that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently categorizes transmission across Penobscot County as high.
The rest of Maine’s counties also have that designation, though Penobscot has consistently seen some of the highest rates of any county in the state since the surge of the delta variant.
The last positive case at Dorothea Dix was on Sept. 23, meaning that the outbreak investigation will close on Friday if nobody else tests positive, Farwell said.
Some 94.5 percent of the center’s staff were vaccinated as of the end of August, according to Maine Department of Health and Human Services data.
The center, formerly known as the Bangor Mental Health Institute, opened a new unit treating older patients with mental illness in January.