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“Maine has the highest COVID case rate in the country.” This isn’t a headline from the height of the delta variant surge this winter. This is a BDN headline from Wednesday, when the state reported more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases.
The sad truth about the COVID pandemic is that it is not over. That means we need to continue with the precautions that have been shown to reduce the transmission of the virus and to lessen the severity of an infection if you do test positive for COVID. That means getting vaccinated and boosted. People over 50 and those who are immunocompromised as eligible for a third booster shot. It also means wearing a mask in crowded indoor settings and gathering outdoors as much as possible.
Maine has had the highest case rate in the country for nearly a week. On Sunday, Maine reported 407 cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was by far the highest of any state in the country. Vermont followed with 395 and Rhode Island had 385 cases per 100,000 residents. Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands have much higher case rates than these states.
The small bit of good news is that Maine’s case rate has dropped from the 421 cases per 100,000 that the CDC reported on Friday.
Case numbers nationally are likely an undercount as many people now use at-home tests, which are not reported to state medical agencies.
There has also been an increase COVID hospitalizations in the state. On Monday, there were 209 Mainers infected with the virus in hospitals across the state. Last week was the first time hospitalizations surpassed 200 since February. Hospitalizations in Maine peaked at 436 in January, during the omicron surge.
Monday’s hospitalizations were up from 143 just 10 days earlier, a 46 percent increase.
Because of the nation’s highest case rate and rising hospitalizations, masks are once again recommended when indoors in half of the state’s counties, including Penobscot and Cumberland. Bangor public schools again began requiring masks for students, staff and visitors on Monday.
We realize that these numbers and warnings are tiring and, frankly, depressing. But, as we continue to learn to live with COVID, heeding public health warnings is one of the best protections we have.
“Ignoring the warnings will not make the virus go away,” Eric J. Topol is a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research, wrote in a recent column published by the BDN. “It keeps getting fitter and more transmissible, while our human qualities of fatigue and complacency feed right into the virus’s remarkable opportunism.”
We are all tired of COVID, and the restrictions and uncertainty that it brings. But, as Topol writes, that fatigue and complacency makes all of us vulnerable to the virus. The precautions that we should all be familiar with – masking, gathering outside and getting vaccinated – are still essential to reversing the worrying COVID trends.