AUBURN — Allan St. Germain, 69, isn’t happy.
The resident of Clover Manor is frustrated with the ongoing outbreaks of COVID-19 that restricts him and others to their rooms and from having visitors.
The current lockdown was prompted after four residents and five workers tested positive for the virus. Eight of the nine had already been fully vaccinated. And the four residents had no symptoms.
St. Germain wants to go out, see his family and go to the community dining room. But he and other residents can’t until 14 days after everyone tests negative for the coronavirus.
“I’ve been vaccinated,” St. Germain said. “I’m sitting in my room. I have to put a mask on to go into the hallway. I can’t go to dinner. I can’t see loved ones.”
He blames the outbreak on unvaccinated workers.
It’s not right, St. Germain said, that all workers at Clover aren’t vaccinated.
“We are not aware of any federal law that bans public or private employers from mandating COVID vaccines,” Maine Office of the Attorney General spokesperson Marc Malon said earlier this week.
There is nothing to prevent Maine employers from requiring employees to get vaccinated so long as they comply with federal and state anti-discrimination laws and guidelines issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Maine Human Rights Commission, Malon said.
At Clover Manor, 92% of residents and 72% of workers have been vaccinated, she said. The facility has offered five vaccination clinics, she said.
Like the flu vaccine, a person who has had a COVID-19 vaccination can still get the virus but the severity of the disease will be far less than without it.
On Tuesday, Dr. Nirav Shah of the Maine Center for Disease Control said statewide there have been 107 so-called “break-through” cases of people getting COVID-19 after being fully vaccinated. Of the Mainers who are vaccinated, 99.8% have not contracted the virus, he said.
Of the nine cases at Clover Manor, the only person who felt sick was a worker who notified her employer before coming to work April 22, as protocols dictate.
“We met her outside,” Sullivan said. “We tested her. It came back positive.” That worker had not been vaccinated but had an appointment to get the shot, she said.
After the woman tested positive, the CDC told administrators to test everyone, O’Sullivan said. “We swabbed everybody.” Out of that came the other positives.
Following CDC guidelines, tests will be repeated every five days.
Restrictions such as no visitors and no community dining is determined by the CDC, O’Sullivan said. “It’s totally out of our hands. We do what they say.”
Like St. Germain, she too is frustrated.
Family not being able to see their mother on her 100th birthday, having to stay away until 14 days after the last case tests negative “is maddening and heartbreaking,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s really hard not to see your loved ones.”
In addition to Clover Manor, the state is investigating outbreaks at d’Youville Pavilion and Montello Manor, both of Lewiston, and Norway Health and Rehabilitation.
At St. Mary’s d’Youville Pavilion the current outbreak involves three COVID-19 cases, all from workers, hospital spokesman Steve Costello said Tuesday. No residents tested positive.
“They were asymptomatic,” he said, and the cases were found by routine testing.
When three tests came back positive, “we did a shutdown of admissions,” restricted visits to residents “until we isolated it,” he said. The workers are quarantining, he added.
Costello wasn’t sure if the three cases were from workers who had been vaccinated. Workers are not mandated to get vaccinated, he said, adding that a majority of residents and workers have had COVID-19 shots.
This story has been updated.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
