Androscoggin, Oxford counties hit substantial COVID-19 transmission, CMMC sees increase in cases

LEWISTON — Community transmission of COVID-19 in Androscoggin and Oxford counties spilled over into the “substantial” range Tuesday, an unsurprising development given that new cases here have been on a sustained upward trend since mid-July.

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 360 new cases of COVID-19 in its first update since Saturday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic to 71,666.

Cases in Androscoggin County totaled 8,673 Tuesday, an increase of 26 since Saturday’s report. Six new cases were reported in Franklin County, for a total of 1,433 cases. And in Oxford County, Tuesday’s ten additional cases brought the cumulative total there to 3,734 cases.

Local hospitals are feeling the impact of the recent surge in new cases.

As with the rest of the country, COVID-19 is spreading primarily among unvaccinated people and in areas of low vaccination rates, Maine CDC Director Dr. Shah said late last month, and it’s those individuals who are most likely to be hospitalized with severe illness.

Safety protocols and clinical practices at Central Maine Medical Center have not changed as a result of the highly contagious delta variant, Dr. John Alexander, chief medical officer for Central Maine Healthcare, CMMC’s parent organization, but it could account for the rising number of patients.

“The most important part is the impact it’s having on the public and our patients. And we have seen just a very gentle increase in the number of patients who are hospitalized,” Alexander said. “For example, today we have three patients who are hospitalized. We had a period of time where we had no patients in-house who had COVID.”

So far this month, CMMC reported a total of 51 in-patient days of individuals with confirmed COVID-19. Six of those in-patient days were in the intensive unit, including two when a patient was connected to a ventilator.

In the first ten days of July, just before the current surge took off, the hospital had a total of 14 in-patient days, none of which were for critical care.

Providers at CMMC cared for an average of 5.3 patients in the seven days ending Aug. 10. Four weeks ago, on July 13, the seven-day rolling average was 2.1 patients per day.

CMMC does not collect samples for genome testing to identify variants.

Bridgton and Rumford hospitals, also part of CMH, did not have any patients with confirmed cases on Tuesday.

St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center had two COVID-positive in-patients Tuesday.

Spokesperson Steve Costello said in an email Tuesday that “St. Mary’s Health Care is watching carefully the daily data on COVID-19 positivity rates in Maine and will make adjustments to our screening requirements as necessary.”

There has been a total of 15 in-patient days at the Lewiston hospital so far this month, the same as in the first ten days of July.

“At this time, we have not seen a substantial increase in our hospitalization rates due to COVID transmission. We urge everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated if you have not done so already,” Costello said.

Statewide hospitalization numbers had not been updated by late afternoon on Tuesday. As of Monday, there were 47 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19, 23 of whom were in critical care. Nine of the individuals in critical care were on a ventilator.

“When we look at over the course of the last month, or even the last couple of months, we certainly have seen that patients are more likely to not have the vaccine if they’re hospitalized,” Alexander said.

Alexander said that of the three in-patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19 hospitalized at CMMC Tuesday, two were unvaccinated. One of those individuals was in critical care and on a ventilator. All were younger than 50 years old.

The trend of younger, sicker patients began in the spring, when CMMC had more patients than ever before in the pandemic.

“The majority of those patients (in late winter) were not critically ill. There was a larger number of patients that we had in our hospital. You know, we had at some points over 20 patients hospitalized,” Alexander said. “But the overwhelming majority of those patients simply required oxygen support.”

“We have smaller numbers now, but again, those patients tend to be more critically ill.”

SURGE CONTINUES STATEWIDE

Franklin County, which last week flipped from moderate to substantial and back again, is now one of only three counties in the state — Kennebec and Sagadahoc being the other two — designated as having a moderate level of community transmission.

A slight dip in new cases late last week brought Franklin down to a moderate level, but if current trends continue it is likely the county will return to substantial levels in the coming days.

Apart from Piscataquis and Waldo counties, both of which have a high level of transmission, the rest of the state’s 16 counties fall into the range of substantial transmission. Maine recommends that in areas of substantial or high transmission, all people — vaccinated or not — wear a mask in public, indoor settings to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

There are no open outbreak investigations in the tri-county area of Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties, Maine CDC spokesperson Robert Long said midday Tuesday.

In Maine and across the country, the widespread emergence of the delta variant earlier this summer set off a surge in new cases. Research cited by the U.S. CDC says that the delta variant is up to two times as contagious as other strains of the COVID-19 virus, meaning that a person infected with it could transmit the disease to twice the number of people than if they carried a different strain.

Alexander, from CMH, said that the test positivity rate for tests administered at the hospital, emergency room and urgent care locations has roughly doubled in the past two weeks, from 1% to 2%. Those are tests administered within the hospital, in the emergency room and at urgent care locations.

Shah, from the Maine CDC, said at a media briefing in late July announcing the masking recommendations, called the delta variant “more wily and more formidable.” A report from the Maine CDC said that the variant accounted for about 86% of all samples collected last month.

“But the biggest message for us out there is to really continue to strongly encourage people to get vaccinated,” Alexander said. “Anyone who can get vaccinated should seriously consider doing so.

“Simply put, vaccines remain the best tool we have to keep ourselves safe,” he said. “They continue to work, and they continue to work well.”