The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday reported 31 cases of the novel coronavirus and no new deaths, as an elementary school in York announced it was closing in response to an outbreak of COVID-19.
Coastal Ridge Elementary School will close for in-person learning until at least Oct. 22, York Schools Superintendent Lou Goscinski said in a letter to the community on Sunday.
Goscinski did not say how many people had been infected – an outbreak means three or more cases within 14 days – nor whether they were adults or children. Until the planned return to school on Oct. 23, Coastal Ridge students will participate in distance learning, he said.
The York School Department has its own contact tracer, who is working with the Maine CDC to identify those who may have been in close contact with the people who tested positive, Goscinski said.
Maine’s cumulative cases rose to 5,723 on Sunday, representing a net increase of 27 cases since Friday. The reported number of new cases on Sunday – 31 – is higher than the difference in daily totals because the Maine CDC revises its numbers of cumulative total cases based on how many “probable” cases later test negative, and on the results of contact tracing investigations.
Of those 5,723 cumulative cases, 5,128 have been confirmed by testing and 595 are considered probable cases of COVID-19.
One hundred forty-three people have died with COVID-19 in Maine, and 4,970 have recovered from the disease. Maine had 610 active cases on Sunday.
Meanwhile, outbreaks in York County and an amateur hockey referee’s positive test have sent many Maine athletes to the bench.
York County has become Maine’s COVID-19 epicenter in the past several weeks, forcing the cancellation of most high school sports. The move to control coronavirus spread has frustrated many coaches and players, leading them to wonder whether they’ll lose the entire season.
The Maine Amateur Hockey Association, meanwhile, canceled all games this weekend through Tuesday because the referee tested positive for COVID-19 after officiating eight games last weekend. The association received a letter on Friday from state officials warning that it could face penalties for continuing to hold indoor games despite health recommendations to the contrary.
State officials have declined to say whether the referee at the center of the investigation was asymptomatic at the time of the hockey games, citing patient privacy. Anyone who was exposed to the referee should quarantine for two weeks, because they still could get infected during that period, even after a negative test, the Maine CDC says.
Up to 400 people may have been exposed, state officials say.
In the warning letter to the hockey association, Jeanne Lambrew, commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, said the state will enforce its community sports guidelines with fines, if needed. Violation of an executive order is a Class E crime punishable by a fine of up to $10,000, she said.
County by county in Maine since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 807 COVID-19 cases in Androscoggin, 52 in Aroostook, 2,386 in Cumberland, 69 in Franklin, 55 in Hancock, 258 in Kennebec, 51 in Knox, 50 in Lincoln, 155 in Oxford, 269 in Penobscot, 10 in Piscataquis, 72 in Sagadahoc, 112 in Somerset, 79 in Waldo, 20 in Washington, and 1,275 in York.
By age, 12.2 percent of patients were under 20, while 16.5 percent were in their 20s, 15.3 percent were in their 30s, 14 percent were in their 40s, 16.1 percent were in their 50s, 11.6 percent were in their 60s, 7.3 percent were in their 70s, and 7 percent were 80 or over.
Women still make up a slight majority of cases, at just over 51 percent.
Effective Oct. 1, the Maine CDC said it will no longer update hospital capacity data on weekends. On Friday, Maine’s hospitals had seven patients with COVID-19, of whom five were in intensive care and none was on a ventilator. The state had 110 intensive care unit beds available of a total 385, and 243 ventilators available of 318. There were also 444 alternative ventilators.
Around the world on Sunday evening, there were 37.3 million known cases of COVID-19 and 1.07 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had 7.7 million cases and 214,742 deaths.
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