Millinocket Coronavirus Outbreak: Officials Say Wedding Is A Warning Story

They gathered at the Big Moose Inn restaurant and spilled into a small lobby. The number of indoor events during a coronavirus pandemic exceeds 50 in the state, and state health officials will declare it later. They weren’t too far from each other, noticed by other hotel guests, or wore masks.

It was until the next day that one of them reported having coronavirus symptoms. Immediately others did. By the end of August, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Maine had associated at least 87 cases with weddings — including outbreaks in prisons and nursing homes in York County more than 200 miles away. I will. And the outbreak became deadly.

like Biotechnology Conference in Boston, A University of Michigan Bar When Chorus practice in Washington, The wedding is now known as the “super diffusion event”. Probably caused by one very infectious person who showed no signs of illness and unknowingly shared an enclosed space with many others. This phenomenon occurs when one infection causes an unbalanced number of other infections. Main CDC director Nirav Shah explained it as “a series of concentric rings created, all from one event on August 7th.”

The outbreak of a wedding resonates especially in rural American communities where gatherings are the lifeline and feared by some public health professionals. Lack of significant viral infections can leave residents with a false sense of self-satisfaction. Fewer healthcare resources mean that an outbreak can be particularly catastrophic.

“When thinking about covid-19, everything that makes the American countryside vulnerable to all sorts of imbalances is magnified ten times,” Shah said. “People tend to get together in small groups in the countryside who know each other, and that’s one thing that makes the countryside great. But when it comes to covid, it slips through rural areas like wildfires. It means you can do it.”

This also applies to Millinocket, a dense town of about 4,500 people once known for its thriving paper mills. Twelve years after the factory was shut down, most people in the town had something to do with their jobs and taxes. Although the population has fallen in half, the natural beauty of Millinocket is a fascinating attraction for tourists and inhabitants amid the backdrop of Maine’s highest peaks.

With the pandemic raging, the community is doing better than many parts of the country, and town manager John Davis said, “There was no incident in the town before this.” The closest confirmed infection was away from town. According to Shah, the average number of new cases in Maine is low and hospitalization rates are the lowest in the country.

The City Hall of Millinocket is not currently open to the public, and the police department only responds by phone to non-emergency calls.

The school board started voting on Tuesday and postponed the start of the class in two weeks. Two of the five members voted against the resumption of face-to-face lessons. Adjacent East Millinocket Class was delayed After it was confirmed that two students and six staff were infected with the virus.

Overnight, Millinocket Regional Hospital saw a leap in testing, averaging 20 to 25 per day and 100 per day. So the admins have begun to temporarily limit the services to mandatory medical care.

“The eternal memories of a perfect day will be forever contaminated by this horrible virus and its aftermath,” said Bob Peterson, CEO of the hospital. “We all have to sacrifice until this virus is under control, which certainly includes a gathering that can be postponed until a safer time.”

One infection became fatal. The woman who died on August 21 was not present at the event, but is believed to have been infected by someone who attended, According to Millinocket Regional Hospital.. According to his son, Teresa Den Tremont’s husband, Franken Tremont, a 97-year-old survivor of the Bulge battle, is being treated for virus at the same facility.

Frank Den Tremont Jr., Gulf Shores, Alabama, said, “I had heard about the wedding.” My father and stepmother weren’t there. They’ve isolated themselves. They’re okay. Who could have known? “

In a city where everyone knows and many families date back to the generations, the sudden hold of the virus confused normal reassurance and made neighbors fear each other.

A 71-year-old seamstress and a lifelong live in Millinocket, Patsy Huston felt relatively protected outside the reach of the virus. As places like New York were hit hard, she was relieved to find that the closest city, Bangor, was more than 70 miles away. Her head swung as she heard about the wedding and subsequent infections.

“I started thinking. What if I tried to hand this over?” Houston remembered.

She said she knows three families with at least one infection. She was taking food off, “I prayed more,” she said.

“It can tear these communities,” said Dora Ammills, chief health improvement officer for Main Health, the state’s largest healthcare system, and former director of Main CDC. “If you can’t trust people, that’s a difficult thing,” she added, “especially because rural communities are very closely linked and based on trust and relationships.”

An explanation of Fate’s Wedding Day will be revealed from state health records and state authorities, as well as from guest interviews at the inn and statements from the Big Moose.

State authorities are still investigating what has happened, but on August 20 they quoted the “imminent health hazard” to the Big Moose Inn. The quote failed the venue in three ways: allowing too many people to come together and unable to implement measures to maintain a 6-foot distance between them, and contact about wedding guests I neglected to get the destination information.

In a statement, the Big Moose operator admitted that he “wrongly interpreted” the rules governing competence. According to the statement, the inn staff said, “Since opening for the May 22 season, we have been doing our best to understand all the rules,” and employees wear masks and clean up. Is increasing.

“I don’t know if the virus has spread completely within the facility, but I am convinced that we can do better,” In said.

“Our heart goes out to families, people affected by the virus at their wedding, and those who have been affected since then,” the statement said.

Rich Zucker said he was staying at the inn on August 7, and was surprised to see the wedding party.

“The big thing we noticed was that everyone was close by and there was no mask,” Zakker said. “Actually, my wife has never seen anyone wearing a mask.”

Mr Shah said the outbreak was the first social link in Maine, saying that many of the nations had returned to some level of activity, creating troublesome law enforcement issues.

“What do you do in that situation in the face of the 50-person gathering limit?” he asked. “Who is responsible? Who is responsible? Are we chasing the bride and groom now?”

Currently, the newlyweds are not officially confirmed. The pastor, who said he had officialized the ceremony, defended it in a social media post and told critics to “know the facts before you make a conclusion.” By the end of this month, the minister appeared to have locked some of his social media accounts, and the couple’s wedding page had disappeared from the internet. Attempts to interview pastors, couples and their families have failed.

In a Facebook post, a friend claimed that local media disseminated false information and promoted the virus, saying they were “treated by a community like a mass murderer.”

There has been some online violence — insults and anger at the comments left on the social media pages and local news stories of attendees. Others were more compassionate, especially as they focused on containing the outbreak.

“Nobody wanted to criticize,” said town manager Davis, who believes that people are now taking more precautions, “and that happened, and we intend to get over it. “I’m more concerned about the health of the city than I am blaming,” said Houston.

Dentremont Jr. loves quilting and mourns his stepmother, “a cheerful woman and a wonderful mom,” who gave her handmade wooden skirts and comforters as Christmas gifts. He asked his father, who had lived during the Great Depression and World War II, to send him a card, went on to build his career at a paper mill and celebrate his 100th birthday with a spaghetti dinner at the City Hall. His goal was to live to age 103, but his son said, “Why he will never answer me.”

Even if he came up with results, the young Dentremont said he wasn’t angry with the people who had the wedding.

“Nobody consciously did this,” he said. “I’m sure they would feel terrible if they knew they were making a mistake.”

That’s exactly the matter of such an event, Mills said.

“It’s a quiet guest at the wedding,” she said. “It spreads quietly, so you’re already doing damage by the time you realize you’ve spread it.”