Maine CDC reports 104 new COVID-19 cases, 3 additional deaths

State health officials reported another 104 cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, along with three more deaths among Mainers who contracted the virus.

The number of new coronavirus infections in Maine continues the downward trajectory, with the seven-day average drop from 234 new cases on Feb. 10 to a daily average of 145 new cases for the week ending Wednesday. This is four times lower than the peak, averaging seven days of 625 new cases reported daily on January 15th.

The total number of vaccine doses administered in Maine was 255,849 as of Wednesday morning, an increase of about 6,000 doses since Tuesday. More than 13 percent of Maine’s population has received at least one dose of vaccine, as state health officials target residents 70 years or older.

The three additional deaths reported on Wednesday increased the total in Maine since March last year to 654. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said all three individuals – two women and one man – are residents of Cumberland County in their 80s. .

Despite the improvement in numbers, Maine Governor Janet Mills extended the state’s civil emergency on Wednesday by another 30 days, in line with most other states. Mills has used the Emergency Declarations Act in recent years to draft public health requirements, such as business restrictions, event size restrictions, test or quarantine requirements for out-of-state visitors, and face-mask mandates for individuals in public institutions. .

“Maine continues to see improved public health standards as we turn to recent trainings,” Mills said in a statement. ‘This is still important as we face a variant of the virus and if we work 24 hours a day to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible, people in Maine must remain careful. I encourage all Maine people to take the steps that keep us all safe – wear a mask, wash your hands, keep an eye on your distance, and avoid gatherings. These things will keep us all safe during the pandemic and give us a better chance of getting back to normal sooner. ”

CAUTION OPTIMISM

Maine and states across the country have seen a sharp decline in new cases in recent weeks.

From early to mid-January, Maine experienced multiple days where new cases were above 700 or 800 cases, although Wednesday’s average of seven days of 145 is still twice as high as in early November and seven times higher than in August. 91 people were hospitalized across the country on Wednesday with COVID-19 – a peak of 207 hospitalizations on January 13 – with 24 of the 91 in critical care and nine connected to ventilators.

But state and national public health officials are concerned about possible congestion caused by more easily transmitted strains of the virus.

Lyndi Brechbuhler, a nurse who works at the Peaks Island Health Clinic, fills a syringe with the Modern COVID-19 vaccine before starting a vaccination clinic at Brackett Memorial Church on Peaks Island. Gregory Rec / Staff Photographer

On Maine CDC on Tuesday reported a second infection with a variant first identified in the UK, known as B.1.1.7, which according to research is even more transmissible. Nationwide, there were 1,277 cases of the British variant in 42 states on Tuesday, as well as more than 20 cases of other variants that were first documented in South Africa and Brazil.

“There are reasons for optimism on the horizon,” said Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine CDC, said Tuesday that he noted declines in both hospitalizations and deaths, as well as increases in vaccinations. “The reason my optimism is not unqualified is because of these new variants.”

EXPANSIONS EXTENDED

Meanwhile, Maine’s vaccination campaign is still targeting older Mainers who are most at risk for serious complications or death if they contract COVID-19.

To date, a total of 255,849 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Maine. The figure contains 180,465 first doses as well as 75,384 second doses, according to the latest figures from the Maine CDC.

Maine is currently in Phase 1B of its vaccination plan, which targets individuals aged 70 and older and is expected to begin offering vaccinations to 65- to 69-year-olds next month. More than 44 percent of the approximately 193,000 Entrepreneurs aged 70+ received at least one dose as of Wednesday, with nearly 7 percent fully vaccinated.

A small number of Mainers between the ages of 65 and 69 would be eligible for shots at the last second under new leadership from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

Doses should be administered within six hours of opening the vial to prevent spoilage of the vaccine. On Tuesday, DHHS unveiled a new ‘effective and complete use policy’ for COVID vaccines enabling clinic owners to offer ‘a small fraction of the doses available at the end of a clinic’ to individuals who are not there that day not registered for vaccination.

The first priority should be given to individuals 70 years or older who are on a waiting list or scheduled for a later date for appointments. However, if no one in that age group is immediately available, doses may be offered to individuals between 65 and 69 years of age, or finally to vaccination clinic staff or volunteers “in the oldest age order”.

DHHS stated that exceptions to this policy would be considered “for unbroken islands, remote locations and other institutions where the provision of vaccines to suitable individuals would be unworkable without a broader suitability.”

‘Requests for such exceptions will be rare and must be approved in advance,’ reads the guidance.

Maine’s attorney general, Aaron Frey, warned Tuesday that his office will consider legal and administrative action against health care providers who fire shots at disabled individuals. The reprimand was in response to several notable violations of these guidelines, including MaineGeneral offering vaccines to donors as part of a pilot clinic and MaineHealth vaccinating out-of-state contractors hired to fight a union campaign among nurses.

Dr. James Jarvis, who is leading the Northern Light Health COVID-19 incident, said extra doses were not a problem at their clinics across the state. Northern Light’s mass vaccination clinic in Bangor’s Cross Insurance Center delivers more than 1000 shots a day and with the recent opening of a second ‘pod’ in the arena center can deliver up to 5000 daily once the stock allows.

Jarvis said Northern Light only makes appointments for the amount of doses it has available on a given day. And unlike some other healthcare providers, Northern Light does not currently have a waiting list of individuals in consideration.

“We do not expect an additional vaccine to be available at the end of the day,” Jarvis said.

MORE DOSES COME

The Biden government on Tuesday planned to allocate an additional dose of 2 million plus vaccines to states – increasing the total distribution to 13.5 million – as well as an additional million doses sent to retail pharmacy companies doing vaccinations. However, it was not clear how many additional doses would be earmarked for Maine.

Maine was expecting 22,475 initial doses combined with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines this week. Second doses are monitored and sent separately, based on when they are scheduled to be administered. In addition, 24 pharmacies in Walmart or Sam’s Club stores in Maine are expected to receive 4,800 doses of vaccinations this week as part of clinics launched last week.

According to the Bloomberg Vaccine, Maine had the sixth highest vaccination rate in the country, with 13.2 percent of residents receiving at least one shot, slightly above the national average of 12.2 percent. Maine achieved the ninth share of the nine states, and the District of Columbia, in terms of the share of the total population (5.4 percent), received both doses.

Vaccination of vaccines, or a reluctance to be vaccinated, is of paramount importance nationwide, as experts estimate that 70 percent or more of the population may be vaccinated against COVID-19 for uncontrolled distribution via a herd. to stop ‘immunity’.

Recent surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau suggest that Mainers would rather have the COVID vaccine than their counterparts in most states. About 62 per cent of respondents said they would receive a vaccine as soon as it was available, which was among the Top 10 nationwide but was lower than all other states in New England except Connecticut. According to the Census Bureau, the national average was 54.8 percent.

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