St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center is viewed Wednesday from above Sabattus Street in Lewiston. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
LEWISTON – State health officials reported just 12 new cases of COVID-19 and no additional deaths Wednesday as Maine’s civil state of emergency came to an end 15-and-a-half months after Gov. Janet Mills issued her first declaration.
“It’s not that we’ve cured the disease, or that we’ve banned the virus or removed the pandemic forever from our lives, or that we’ve thrown caution to the wind or that everything now is exactly how it was 16 months ago, but the state of civil emergency is no longer necessary,” Mills said. “It is over and it is time.”
Mills, along with Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Nirav Shah and Maine Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Dr. Jeanne Lambrew, gave the state’s final regularly scheduled briefing on COVID-19 from the cabinet room in the Maine State House in Augusta.
“Pandemics don’t end with the expiration of a declaration. Rather, they end with a prolonged exaltation. That’s the case here,” Shah said, who has briefed the media 190 times over the past 16 months.
Of Wednesday’s new cases, two are in Franklin County and there is one each in Androscoggin and Oxford counties. On average, 22.3 Maine people have tested positive for the disease over the past seven days, a significant decrease from the seven-day rolling average just four weeks ago, which was at 83.7.
Adjusted for population, there is an average of 0.17 new daily cases per 10,000 individuals across the state over the past seven days, down from 0.62 on June 2. Androscoggin County’s seven-day average per 10,000 individuals is 0.29 as of Wednesday; Franklin and Oxford counties’ averages are 0.52 and 0.12, respectively.
A rolling average of new daily cases smooths out day-to-day blips and dips in numbers and provides a more accurate look at case rate trends over a period of time. The seven-day average per capita is most accurate for comparison’s sake.
With the exception of Franklin County, the seven-day average of new daily cases of COVID-19 per capita has decreased from one month ago. While Androscoggin and Oxford counties’ daily new cases are decreasing, trends in Franklin County appear to be more volatile.
Four weeks ago, on June 2, the seven-day average of new daily cases was 0.38 per 10,000 residents in Franklin County. Two weeks later, on June 16, the average went up to 0.95 cases per 10,000 residents. And one week ago, the county’s seven-day average was down to its lowest level since October, at 0.09 cases per 10,000 residents.
“Though the emergency ends, COVID continues,” Shah said. “There will continue to be cases of COVID, there will continue to be outbreaks of COVID, there will continue to be hospitalizations and sadly, deaths.”
Thirty individuals across the state were hospitalized Wednesday with COVID-19, including 18 in critical care, eight of whom are on a ventilator.
Central Maine Medical Center had no COVID-19 inpatients Wednesday and St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center had just two, but none were in critical care.
“But how much longer, with what intensity and with what impact on our state and our lives, well, that’s up to us and specifically, how many of us get vaccinated,” Shah said.
Statewide, 58.4% of all Maine residents are fully vaccinated. Of all Androscoggin County residents, 50.6% are fully vaccinated. Franklin and Oxford counties have yet to break the 50% mark; 49.7% and 49.8% of residents there are fully vaccinated, respectively.
The vaccination rate increases when considering only those who are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, or those 12 years and older. Statewide, 66.3% of all eligible Mainers are fully vaccinated. In Androscoggin County, 59.1% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated, in Franklin County, 56.01% and in Oxford County, 56.2% of residents are fully vaccinated.
By both metrics, the tri-county area is among the least vaccinated in the state.
“The vaccines are key here and we have undersold their effectiveness,” Shah said.
Vaccinations among health care personnel are also of concern, Shah noted previously. According to data from the Maine DHHS, staff at CMMC and St. Mary’s have the lowest vaccination rates of Maine’s 38 hospitals. As of May 31, 58.1% of CMMC staff and 52.1 of St. Mary’s staff are fully vaccinated. About 74% of all hospital personnel in the state are fully vaccinated.
Officials from the Lewiston hospitals said previously that the way the data was collected skews the “real” number of vaccinated personnel and spokespeople from both said 65% is a more accurate vaccination rate.
Earlier this week, the association representing Maine hospitals indicated their support for a blanket requirement for all health care personnel to be vaccinated against COVID-19, once they have received full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The three vaccines available in the U.S. – Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson – were granted emergency use authorization by the FDA, a mechanism to “facilitate the availability and use of medical countermeasures, including vaccines, during public health emergencies,” according to the agency.
Following the association’s statement, CMMC Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Alexander said Tuesday that hospital leadership is still not considering mandating the COVID-19 vaccine for its staff.
“There is certainly a sense of urgency around the COVID vaccine and making sure that we’re doing everything we can to prevent further spread, which does primarily include vaccinations now as one of the key choices,” Alexander said. “Like I said, we’ll have to wait and see where the FDA lands in terms of the approval process.”
Alexander said hospital leadership will reevaluate the situation if and when the vaccines receive full approval, but declined to speculate on what might factor into that decision.
St. Mary’s spokesperson Steve Costello said Wednesday that leadership there hasn’t changed their stance, either: “We are watching closely what the MHA and CDC have to say on this subject but no decisions have been made at this time.”
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