The weekly count of COVID-19 cases in Lincoln County residents dropped for the second week in a row, with 34 new cases identified in the past week, down from 41 last week.
One more resident has died from complications from COVID-19, for a total of three deaths of Lincoln County residents since the pandemic began in March 2020.
John Martins, spokesperson for LincolnHealth, said by email that “it appears things have leveled off” at the hospital’s Respiratory Care Clinic on the Miles Campus in Damariscotta, where COVID-19 tests are performed.
From May 17-23, the clinic tested 366 people with 12 positives, for a positivity rate of 3.27%. In the week prior, the clinic tested 453 people with 10 positives, for a positivity rate of 2.21%. This is down from a record-high amount of COVID-19 positives at the end of April and beginning of May, where the Respiratory Care Clinic saw 72 positive cases in two weeks.
Martins said that the number of tests decreased this week due to a change in pre-operation testing protocols.
The state’s swab-and-send site on LincolnHealth’s Miles Campus in Damariscotta offers drive-up COVID-19 testing by appointment from 8 a.m. to noon Wednesday and Thursday. To make an appointment, call the clinic at 563-4353.
LincolnHealth will hold a pop-up vaccine clinic at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Soule-Shuman Memorial Post 4525 on Mill Street in Waldoboro for ages 12 and up from 2-6 p.m. on Thursday, May 27. Walk-ins are welcome and people can also register for an appointment by calling 832-6394.
Martins said there will be more pop-up clinics in the future and those interested should follow LincolnHealth’s Facebook page for more details.
He said LincolnHealth delivered 600 first doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which was recently approved for use for ages 12-15, at school clinics in the county in the past week. Clinics were held at Lincoln Academy, Wiscasset Middle High School, and Medomak Valley High School. Boothbay Region students received shots at the LincolnHealth vaccine clinic at the Boothbay Region YMCA’s Marylouise Tandy Cowan Fieldhouse in Boothbay Harbor.
The clinic also delivered 600 additional doses, most of which were second doses.
The clinic is open to walk-ins and will be operating from 8:15 a.m. to noon on Thursday, May 27 and will be closed on Friday, May 28. It will permanently close on Friday, June 4.
Businesses are beginning a return to normalcy since state-mandated masking, capacity limits, and physical distancing requirements have been lifted in Maine, as of Monday, May 24.
According to Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention data current as of Tuesday, May 25, Lincoln County has a “moderate to high” rate of doses administered per 100,000 residents relative to other counties in the state at 116,564.65.
Robert Long, spokesperson for the Maine CDC, has said the number does not represent fully vaccinated individuals and that since the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines both require two doses, the number can be higher than 100,000.
The census data for Lincoln County provided by the Maine CDC lists a population of 34,634. Of those residents, 20,832, or 60.15%, have received their first dose of the vaccine and 19,539, or 56.42%, have received the second and final dose, according to the agency’s data. A total of 40,371 doses of vaccine have been administered.
According to the U.S. CDC website, the three COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the country “have been shown to be safe and effective at preventing COVID-19.”
According to a database maintained by the Maine CDC, vaccine appointments can be requested at Hannaford in Damariscotta, Walgreens locations in Damariscotta and Boothbay Harbor, Nathan’s Pharmacy in Boothbay Harbor, and Community Pharmacy in Waldoboro.
Appointments are also available at Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Shaw’s locations, all outside Lincoln County. Walmart and Sam’s Club pharmacies are open for walk-ins.
Patients of Sheepscot Valley Health Center in Coopers Mills can call 549-7581 to make an appointment for a vaccine.
To schedule an appointment at Shaw’s, go to shaws.com/covid-19.
To schedule an appointment at Hannaford, go to hannaford.com/pharmacy/covid-19-vaccine.
To schedule an appointment at Walgreens, go to walgreens.com/schedulevaccine.
To schedule an appointment at Community Pharmacy, go to communityrx.com/covid-19.
To schedule an appointment at Nathan’s Pharmacy, call 315-2280.
According to Maine CDC data current as of Tuesday, since COVID-19 arrived in Lincoln County in mid-March 2020, 1,048 residents have had the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus — 864 confirmed cases and 184 probable.
Hospitalizations held at 23.
Since the Maine CDC is no longer actively tracking “completed isolations,” an estimate of the number of people currently sick with COVID-19 in Lincoln County can be made using the total number of new cases reported in the past two weeks, 75, down from 100 last week.
Lincoln County has the sixth-lowest case rate per 10,000 people in the state at 303.1 — after Aroostook, Hancock, Knox, Waldo, and Washington counties.
According to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center, the seven-day average positivity rate for Maine is 2.96%, down from 3.54% last week.
According to the U.S. CDC, the seven-day average positivity rate for this past week is 3.4%, the same as last week.
State COVID-19 numbers
According to data current as of Tuesday, the Maine CDC has reported 67,294 COVID-19 cases in Maine, an increase of 979 from the week before. Of those cases, 17,996 are probable.
There have been 1,989 hospitalizations in the state. There have been 825 deaths so far from COVID-19 in Maine, including 18 in the last week. The statewide case rate is 502.8 per 10,000 people, up from 495.5 last week.
The number of new cases identified in the past two weeks is 2,848, down from 3,458 last week.
