COVID-19 testing ramped up at LincolnHealth this past week, with 281 individuals being tested with 15 positives between Dec. 12 and 18.
Despite two more positive tests, the positivity rate dropped from 9.92% last week to 5.36%. This is the eighth week in a row that the positivity rate has been in single digits.
LincolnHealth offers the COVID-19 vaccine to anyone 6 months and older.
LincolnHealth spokesperson John Martins has urged people to get their flu shot and bivalent COVID-19 booster shot, which contains components of the original COVID-19 strain as well as the omicron variant.
For more information, people can contact their primary care physician or visit vaccine.mainehealth.org.
Community transmission, which is defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and describes the amount of COVID-19 spread in a community, has been upgraded to “substantial” after many weeks at the “moderate” level. This metric is used by healthcare facilities to determine infection control intervention, Martins has said.
The community level, which describes the impact of COVID-19 on communities, is “low” for Lincoln County and has stayed there since the levels were first determined. Community levels are calculated using the number of new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population in the past seven days, the percentage of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, and total new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the past seven days.
MaineHealth is maintaining a database of COVID-19 information that can be accessed at mainehealth.org/coronavirus-COVID-19/what-to-do.
The health system also recommends staying home when sick, testing for COVID-19 in the event of symptoms or contact with a COVID-19-positive person, and seeking care when necessary.
According to Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention data current through Monday, Dec. 19, since COVID-19 arrived in Lincoln County in March 2020, 6,693 residents have had the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus – 5,581 confirmed cases and 1,112 probable. The number of deaths in Lincoln County residents stayed at 42.
The number of residents who have been hospitalized with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic rose by one to 113.
Lincoln County has a “moderate to high” rate of vaccine doses administered per 100,000 residents relative to other counties in the state at 266,688.80. The number does not represent fully vaccinated individuals and, since the Pfizer-BioNTech 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, 27,244, or 78.66%, have received their first dose of the vaccine and 27,966, or 80.75%, have received the second and final dose, according to the agency’s data.
A total of 92,365 doses of vaccine have been administered, up 331 doses from last week. Those counted in the final dose category have either received the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or the single shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
There have been 37,155 additional or booster shots given to Lincoln County residents.
State COVID-19 numbers
According to data current as of Dec. 19, the Maine CDC has reported 304,797 COVID-19 cases in Maine, an increase of 3,237 from the week before. Of those cases, 86,287 are probable.
There have been 6,463 hospitalizations in the state, including 34 reported in the past week. There have been 2,779 deaths so far from COVID-19 in Maine, including two reported in the last week. The statewide case rate is 2,277.3 per 10,000 people, up from 2,270.3 last week.
