Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah and Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services gave a weekly update on Maine’s response to the coronavirus on Wednesday.
From an update on the case backlog to masking in schools and testing, here are the top things you should know:
There is still a case backlog
The state has been reporting an increase in cases in recent days. However, Shah assured Mainers that it’s not due to a superspreader event but the state’s continuing backlog of thousands of positive COVID tests. The backlog in cases now stands at 30,030, but the state is working to clear that by using AI bots.
Maine is expanding testing
Originally meant for people who did not have easy access to tests, Gov. Janet Mills has expanded Project ACT tests – funded by the Rockefeller Foundation — to all Maine households. Every household is eligible for an order of five at-home rapid tests through accesscovidtests.org. One order is allowed per household and will be delivered through Amazon one week after ordering.
Maine CDC may change masking recommendations for schools
Previously, the Maine CDC allowed schools to suspend contact tracing in schools provided that they had a mask requirement in place. Shah said they are “consciously uncoupling” that, and will allow schools to suspend tracing regardless of whether mandates are in place.
Following the start of school vacation next week, the Maine CDC will also revisit its masking recommendations for schools which was that all staff and students wore masks. In collaboration with superintendents, Shah said the agency will look at trends, the stability of trends and any upswings they may occur following the break, before it makes any changes.
However, there will be a continuation with pooled testing.
Future briefings will happen on an as-needed basis
The Maine CDC has been livestreaming its briefings every Wednesday at 2 p.m. However, Shah announced at the end of this week’s briefing that they will now happen on an as-needed basis. The agency will announce when these briefings will occur.
On Wednesday, the Maine CDC also announced that nine more Mainers have died and another 3,556 coronavirus cases reported across the state.
It’s the second day in a row when the agency reported an elevated number of virus cases due to the case backlog, making the daily case counts less reliable indicators of the severity of the virus’ spread across the state. Other indicators, including falling hospitalizations and wastewater testing, suggest the coronavirus may be loosening its grip on Maine.
So far, 4,188 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Of those, 249 are currently hospitalized, with 63 in critical care and 29 on a ventilator. The state has been seeing a consistent drop in cases the past couple of weeks, with Shah noting that 344 Mainers were hospitalized two weeks ago.