The caseload in Kennebec County courts is 67% higher than it was pre-pandemic, with 2,343 cases pending.
coronavirus
Posted inMaine, Politics
Court grants new life to lawsuit challenging Maine’s vaccine mandate for health care workers
Three judges on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously reversed a lower court’s decision to throw out a legal challenge to the state’s COVID-19 mandate for health care workers.
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Posted inBusiness, Maine, News
Abbott Labs lays off another 199 workers at Westbrook COVID-test plant
The company, one of the largest makers of screening tests for the disease, has been scaling back as demand for the products has dwindled, laying off more than 800 people over the last 2 years.
Posted inNation / World
End of COVID emergency highlights U.S. weakness in tracking outbreaks
The winding down of the Biden administration’s coronavirus response highlights long-standing vulnerabilities of system that fails to provide reliable information in disease outbreaks, experts warn.
Posted inHealth, Maine
With COVID-19 public health emergency ending, Maine CDC website to stop updating vaccination numbers
The state will still update COVID-19 case counts, hospitalizations and deaths.
Posted inNation / World
WHO downgrades COVID pandemic, says it’s no longer global emergency
The pandemic has been on a downward trend for more than a year, and most countries have returned to life before COVID-19.
Posted inMaine
MaineHealth drops COVID-19 masking requirement
Masks are no longer required at MaineHealth or Northern Light Health medical facilities statewide, effectively putting an end to the emergency measure in most situations 3 years after the pandemic began.
Posted inHealth, Maine
Northern Light Health drops universal masking policy in medical facilities
The move by Maine’s second largest health care network comes as the number of hospital patients with COVID-19 has dropped to the lowest level since August 2021.
Posted inNation / World, News
Biden ends COVID national emergency after Congress acts
The U.S. national emergency to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic has ended.
Posted inHealth, Maine
Uptake of bivalent COVID-19 boosters low in Maine, but still higher than most of the country
Nearly a third of all Mainers ages 5 years and older have received the omicron-targeting bivalent booster shot compared to less than 18% of individuals nationwide. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that individuals who have received the bivalent booster are at significantly lower risk of hospitalization and death compared to unvaccinated individuals.