Dr. Nirav Shah, Director of the MaineCDC, at This Morning’s One Hour Briefing.
Dr. Nirav Shah, Director of MaineCDC, clarified this morning at his daily briefing that the reduction in testing equipment ordered from Abbott Labs, Scarborough, pertained to the testing kits themselves that are processed by the machines. Initially, Maine ordered 2,400 kits and received only 120 of them yesterday morning – a drastic reduction from the original order.
That reduction in test kits makes it less possible to conserve the amount of PPE used by health care providers. The rapid response equipment was to be used primarily for people who might get “lost” in the process – for example, the homeless. Dr. Shah has recently been in talks with Abbott officials to see if this situation can be improved. MaineCDC has ordered more tests from Abbott and they may be on the way he said.. Dr. Shah announced that he has been in talks with the local Martin’s Point Health Care, Inc. The talks have been highly productive and collaborative for which Dr. Shah expressed his appreciation.
As is his habit at the outset of the briefing, Dr. Shah announced that since yesterday’s briefing, there have been two additional deaths in Maine – bringing the total to 16 deaths. One was a man in his 80s from Cumberland County and the other a women in her 90s from Waldo County. There are currently 560 diagnosed cases of the coronavrius in Maine. That is 23 more since yesterday’s briefing. He said that 11,608 people have tested negatively.
The doctor highlighted the Tall Pines Retirement Community, Belfast, which has been hit-hard with COVID-19. Ten of its residents have tested positively and three of its staff members have also tested positively. Maine CDC is in close contact with Tall Pines.
Congregate housing has been touted as an incubator for the COVID-19. Accordingly, 43 cases have been diagnosed coming from those living in group homes, shelters and nursing homes. According to research with other states, Dr. Shah said congregate housing has been a significant factor in the number of positively diagnosed. On another related subject, there has been a 53% reduction in traffic patters for the entire state of Maine.
“Life will forever be different. We will be aware how globally connected to the rest of the world we are. But, there will be ways life can return to normal,” Dr. Shah said.