Maine hospitals report a surge in COVID-19 patients as risk increases

Cumberland County and the Mid-Coastal Region were reclassified as high-risk for COVID-19 on Thursday as the number of hospitalized cases throughout the state due to the virus surged to 193, the highest level since late February.

The number of patients in Maine has gradually increased from about 100 to 169 in the past few weeks, followed by an increase of 24, or 14%, in the last 24 hours. Of the patients hospitalized on Thursday morning, 33 were critical care patients and 3 were on mechanical ventilation.

The Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also reported 699 new cases and 8 additional deaths on Thursday.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifies Cumberland County and the other six Maine states as “high” risk based on the number of new infections reported in the last 7 days, the number of new COVID-19 hospitalizations, and the percentage. Did. The number of manned inpatients used by COVID-19 patients. Other high-risk counties that fall into such Thursday are Lincoln, Knox, Sagadahok, Hancock, Penobscot, and Piscatakis. Prior to the Thursday update, Aroostook County was already considered high risk.

With the exception of Androscoggin, all other counties are considered “medium” risk. Androscoggin remains at “low” risk. The CDC states that people in high-risk communities need to wear masks indoors in public places.

In Maine due to a surge in new cases over the past three weeks, including more than 1,000 cases on Tuesday and Wednesday Highest infection rate in all statesAccording to the US CDC.

As of Wednesday, Maine reported 372 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the past seven days. This is almost three times the national average of 130 cases, according to the US CDC. Rhode Island, Vermont, and New York follow Maine.

In Maine and other northeastern states, infections have surged in the past few weeks as new, highly contagious versions of the virus spread throughout the region. According to data released by the state, the Omicron BA.2 subvariant and two closely related subvariants (BA.2.12 and BA.2.12.1) account for 80% of the new infectious diseases in Maine.

The surge in COVID cases in Maine is consistent across the state, with significantly higher COVID rates than any other region, according to Maine Health, the parent organization of Portland’s Main Medical Center and seven other main hospitals. There is no specific area to indicate.

With exceptions, there are two major groups admitted to the hospital, especially for COVID, said Dr. Dora Anne Mills, Chief Health Improvement Officer and former State CDC Director at Maine Health. They are older vaccinated people and younger unvaccinated people.

The number of patients admitted to the Maine Health network using COVID is increasing rapidly, but about two-thirds of these patients are admitted to the virus and the remaining one-third for other reasons. I am hospitalized, but the test result is positive. The Maine CDC reports only the number of patients with COVID and does not distinguish between patients who are hospitalized for other reasons.

According to Mills, Maine Health found that 1 in 25 people hospitalized outside of COVID, or 4%, happened to be infected with the virus. This was significantly lower than the proportion of inpatients who were accidentally infected with COVID during the January Omicron wave, with about 10%, or 10%, of inpatients being positive by chance.

According to Mills, the proportion of COVID patients receiving critical care center was also high in January. Approximately 17 percent of all patients in the state currently hospitalized with COVID receive critical care. In January, about 25% of all patients in the state received intensive care.

People are generally transferred to critical care when experiencing life-threatening conditions. “People can get quite sick before moving on to critical care,” Mills said.

MaineHealth is also examining patients who have had multiple COVID experiences, including those who were infected with Omicron in January and caught a new subvariant of the virus. One study Although not yet peer-reviewed, some people acquired BA.2 immediately after acquiring BA.1, but said their occurrence was rare.

Although the number of COVID patients receiving critical care is still small, hospitals are still tense for other reasons alone, Mills said.

Stroke, mental health, addiction, and diabetes are just a few of the more patients coming to the hospital than they were before the pandemic, Mills said. She has several reasons for this, including stressors over the past few years, bottlenecks caused by people who delayed care during a pandemic, and the COVID infection itself, which has been shown to increase the risk of certain health conditions. I pointed out.

Public health officials, including Mills, continue to encourage residents of Maine to protect themselves from COVID infections through masking, vaccination and support, selection of outdoor meetings where possible, and regular inspections. I am.

Since vaccination became readily available last year, unvaccinated people account for 67 percent of COVID hospitalizations. Recently, the number of vaccinated COVID patients has increased compared to unvaccinated COVID patients.

According to Mills, about 40% of Maine Health COVID patients are unvaccinated. “This shows how high the risk of severe infections is when not vaccinated, compared to less than 10% of the unvaccinated population,” she said. ..

According to public health officials, increasing the proportion of vaccinated patients does not reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine, but a pool of Mainers without COVID immunity, a previously uninfected vaccine. The number of people who do not have it is decreasing. Vaccination will continue to prevent serious illnesses and viral infections, Mills said.

The situation is similar at Northern Light Health Network facilities, including Mercy Hospital in Portland and Eastern Main Medical Center in Bangor.

Northern Wright officials said there was a mix of COVID patients who were hospitalized for COVID and those who happened to be infected with COVID for other reasons. Over the past few weeks, the network has seen a surge in patients admitted with COVID.

Five of the 44 patients infected with COVID received critical care center early Thursday afternoon, according to Patricia King, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Northern Light Health. The severity of the virus in other COVID patients varies, but authorities say they need to be “quite ill” to be hospitalized with the virus.

Networks have seen several recurring cases of viruses, but they are uncommon. King said most of the repeat cases he encountered recently came from people who were positive in the fall when Delta was a common mutation.

About 75% of Maine residents and 90% of people over the age of 60 (the age group most likely to be hospitalized for COVID) are vaccinated. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Maine has recorded 248,798 cases and 2,304 deaths.

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