Maine hospitals have record number of intensive care patients as COVID-19 cases rise

More Maine residents were in intensive care with COVID-19 or connected to ventilators on Thursday than at any time since the pandemic began 18 months ago.

While Maine’s 193 total hospitalizations are still lower than last winter’s record number, the 74 patients in intensive care unit beds are the largest to date. In addition, 38 of those people – or about 20% of all hospitalizations – needed ventilators to help them breathe.

Meanwhile, infection rates continue to rise in Maine.

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday reported 620 new cases of COVID-19 and five more deaths as the delta variant spreads across the state, particularly among the unvaccinated. All five of the deaths were in Knox, Penobscot and York counties, and four of the five were men aged 80 or older, while one was a man in his 40s.

Maine CDC staff were working on a backlog of more than 2,400 positive test results on Wednesday, so the 620 new cases represent infections reported over several days rather than the previous 24-hour period.

But with the increase in the number of cases and rates of positive tests, it is possible that Maine will eclipse the record 207 hospitalizations reported on January 13.

Between 70 and 75 percent of people hospitalized – and nearly 100 percent of people in intensive care on certain days – are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the Maine CDC said.

In an interview Thursday, Maine CDC director Dr Nirav Shah said he hates to keep saying the same thing because it sounds like a cliché.

“This is deeply concerning,” he said of the current hospitalizations and the record number of intensive care patients. “There is a saying that what is predictable is preventable. It’s kind of what keeps me from sleeping at night. The delta surge was predictable. The question is: how many cases of people hospitalized or in intensive care or on ventilation, how many of these are preventable?

Because the number of hospitalizations fluctuates regularly, Shah said he didn’t have an exact number of unvaccinated intensive care patients, but it was regularly 90 to 95 percent.

Northern Light Health on Wednesday released data showing that 22 of 23 patients in intensive care units in its hospital network were unvaccinated, as were 10 of 11 people connected to ventilators.

Penobscot County saw the biggest jump with 134 new cases, followed by York and Cumberland – the most populous counties in the state – with 95 new cases each. But the counties with the highest seven-day case rates relative to their populations were Waldo, Somerset, Aroostook, Penobscot, Kennebec and Piscataquis, most of which are rural counties with lower case rates before the most recent outbreak. .

The masks are recommended for vaccinated and unvaccinated people in indoor public places in all 16 counties of Maine due to high or substantial levels of community transmission.

Maine continues to have one of the highest vaccination rates in the country, just behind Vermont, Connecticut and Massachusetts in terms of the percentage of the total population that has been vaccinated against COVID-19.

As of Wednesday, 72.2% of eligible Mainers had received the final dose of Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines. That number drops to 66.5% when you consider Maine’s entire population of 1.3 million, but is well above the national figure of 53.3%, according to the latest figures from the American CDC.

Maine also has the third-lowest case rate per 100,000 population and the fourth-lowest death rate in the country for the entire pandemic, according to the New York Times tracking. But infection rates are rising faster in Maine than in every other New England state except Rhode Island, amid the outbreak caused by the more contagious delta variant.

Over the past seven days, Maine has recorded an average of 26.7 cases per 100,000 residents, compared with just 15.6 cases per 100,000 in Connecticut and 22.5 cases per 100,000 residents in Massachusetts. The national average over the past week was 45 cases per 100,000 population, ahead of Tennessee and South Carolina with about 100 cases per 100,000 population.

The large number of new cases in Maine – representing the fourth time this month that a single report has exceeded 600 cases – likely represents new positive test results received by the state over several days rather than over the course of the previous 24 hour period. During his briefing on Wednesday, Shah said agency staff were working on more than 2,400 positive test results that needed to be examined to distinguish new infections from repeat positive tests of known cases.

Shah said the Maine CDC is receiving 420 to 440 positive test results each day and additional staff have been added to the review team.

“We expect there will be a high and sustained number of cases as we pass through these 2,441 labs,” Shah said Wednesday.

The seven-day average of new cases in Maine continues to trend higher, standing at 359 on Thursday, from 203 just two weeks ago and 79 in early August. The state’s average daily infection rate – 27 cases per 100,000 population – is among the highest in New England but still below the national average of 45 cases.

The increase in the number of cases has been largely due to infections among the unvaccinated, although the number of “breakthrough” infections among those vaccinated is increasing.

Hospitalizations are also at their highest level since mid-January and could rise further as hospitalizations are typically several weeks behind new infections.

The peak of cases put a strain on hospital resources. MaineHealth, the parent company of Maine Medical Center in Portland and seven other hospitals in Maine, has recalled elective surgeries to make room for unvaccinated COVID-19 patients.

“We don’t have the end of when we can return to normal capacity in sight,” said Dr. Joan Boomsma, Chief Medical Officer of MaineHealth, earlier this week.

To date, the Maine CDC has followed 79,423 confirmed or potential cases of COVID-19 in the state since March 2020. There have been at least 951 deaths related to the viral disease in Maine.

A hospital in Maine is partnering with Massachusetts General Hospital to provide specialized care for people who still show symptoms of COVID-19 after recovering from the disease.

Portland’s Mercy Hospital, part of the Northern Light Health Network, has brought together specialists to assess and treat people with what’s known as “long COVID,” which can manifest itself in different ways. In some cases, people have reported severe fatigue, shortness of breath, or other debilitating symptoms long after they have been found to have recovered.

“We are seeing more and more people showing symptoms months after their recovery from COVID-19,” Dr. Su-Anne Hammond, medical director of Northern Light Mercy Primary Care, said in a statement. “We have been fortunate to collaborate with Massachusetts General Hospital on post-COVID patient care, and we look forward to helping more people in the weeks and months to come.”

Patients seeking assessments for persistent post-COVID symptoms can call Mercy Hospital at 207-857-8375 or can find more information on the hospital’s website, to make an appointment. Additional information about the service, along with examples of post-COVID symptoms, is available on the Mercy Hospital website.

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