AUGUSTA, Maine — Fully vaccinated Mainers are no longer required to wear face coverings in indoor settings as of Monday, but the milestone will leave out children under age 12 who are ineligible for COVID-19 vaccines and challenge their parents this summer.
The change in mask policy — perhaps the surest sign yet of some return to a pre-pandemic normal — comes as infections have declined steadily for the past several weeks. But the case rate among people under age 20 remains higher than any time since mid-February and the number of daily cases and the positivity rate also are higher than they were last summer.
The Monday shift has left many parents wondering about the best course of action to prevent infections among young children amid concerns that unvaccinated people may decline to wear masks and the virus could see a resurgence as Maine remains short of herd immunity.
About 53 percent of Mainers aged 16 and older are no longer required to wear face coverings indoors as of Monday, as they received their final vaccine dose at least two weeks ago, in accordance with guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But what share of unvaccinated adults will continue to use face coverings is unclear, as the state has indicated businesses are not required to enforce mask rules.
In an informal Bangor Daily News survey last week, about half of parents said they were less likely to take their kids to indoor activities this summer with the new mask policy in place.
“I don’t know who’s going to be vaccinated and not vaccinated,” said Jennifer Newell-Caito, a Hampden mother of three young children, “and it makes me nervous that those who are not vaccinated will be going to the store en masse and potentially giving my 1-year-old COVID-19.”
Jeanne Lambrew, commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, noted that adults could still opt to wear face coverings to set a good example for children. Many businesses have said they will continue to require all customers to use masks in order to avoid distinguishing between unvaccinated and vaccinated people.
Health officials also point to continued efforts to vaccinate adults as a means to block transmission of the virus. Coronavirus cases among children in Maine over the past year have generally mirrored the overall trend in cases, suggesting that fewer cases among adults due to immunity from vaccines could help slow transmission.
While infections have been declining in Maine for the past few weeks among both children and adults, the rate of new cases among children remains higher than it was last fall, according to state data. The positivity rate among the general population also remains higher.
COVID-19 transmission among children remains difficult to pin down due to asymptomatic cases, said Gibson Parrish, an epidemiologist based in southern Maine who used to work for the U.S. CDC. Since the pandemic arrived in Maine, just shy of 12,500 people younger than 20 have tested positive for the virus.
“The rate of symptomatic COVID infection goes up with age, and the likelihood of having severe disease also goes up with age,” Parrish said. “That’s been seen since the very beginning of the epidemic.”
While severe COVID-19 in children is rare, it still happens. Since March 2020, 23 people under the age of 20 have been hospitalized with the virus, according to data from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, accounting for 1.2 percent of total hospitalizations here.
No children have died from the virus in Maine and it is exceedingly rare nationwide. The American Academy of Pediatrics has documented roughly 300 COVID-19 deaths among U.S. children. Medical conditions such as asthma, obesity or developmental disabilities may also put a child more at risk for death from COVID-19, according to a U.S. CDC study, although that study found a quarter of children who died had no underlying conditions.
Some parents also remain concerned about so-called long haulers, or children who continue to experience COVID-19 symptoms, such as loss of smell, lung inflammation or shortness of breath, months after first contracting the disease. Doctors have only just begun to study long-term COVID-19 effects on children, so it may not be clear how common it is.
A mother of two in the Bangor area, who asked for her name to be withheld because she is a teacher and did not want conflict with parents who oppose mask wearing, expressed frustration about a lack of guidelines for parents and children, recalling a U.S. CDC press conference where public health officials said unvaccinated people were only risking their own health.
She had been planning to take her 7-year-old daughter to the store soon to give her a chance to spend some tooth fairy money. Instead, she went by herself to grab some toys that her kids could play with outdoors and to give herself time to think about how they would interpret the new rules around them.
“Kids are all about ‘fair,’” she said. “They see that they still have to wear masks and the grown ups don’t, it’s like, ‘That’s not fair.’ It’s gonna make it that much harder for them to do what they need to do for their safety.”