The Millinocket inn that hosted a wedding for 7 weddings linked to a COVID-19 outbreak has been cited by the state for increasing the limit of 50 people for indoor events.
The state has given the Big Moose Inn an “imaginative health hazard” situation, according to Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. About 65 guests attended the wedding, exceeding the current limit of 50 people at indoor meetings.
The inn does not currently incur financial fines, Shah said, but it could face fines and a temporary permit if it continues to violate state health rules. The situation is an official statement that the hostel has violated one or more state health rules, and it asks the hostel’s operators to comply in advance. In addition to overseeing the limit of 50 people at meetings, Shah said, the inn’s restaurant was named for operating more than its licensed capacity.
Thirty-two cases are now linked to the wedding, which is why the ceremony took place at Tri Town Baptist Church in East Millinocket, Shah said. The virus has infected people as young as 4 and as old as 78. Seven of the 32 people infected are under 18, he said.
One guest reported developing symptoms on August 8, the day after the wedding, Shah said, while others reported symptoms four days later. Eighty-seven percent of the cases discovered so far have been in people with symptoms, he said.
Three of the infected people did not appear to have attended the wedding or reception, Shah said.
One person has been hospitalized so far, according to Dr. Robert Peterson, CEO of Millinocket Regional Hospital.
It is too early to say whether the church will face a citation, he said. The Big Moose Inn is the only establishment so far cited in Maine for flooding the state land for coronavirus.
The owner of the inn did not respond to a request for comment this week.
The marriage outbreak brought a spike in cases to an area that had seen a few cases in recent months, and state health officials said earlier this week that they were concerned that infected marriages could cause “secondary waves” of COVID-19 infections, when they returned to their communities after the wedding.
As of Sunday, Millinocket had recorded 14 cases of coronavirus after not recording any cases for the first five months of the pandemic, according to data from Maine CDC. East Millinocket’s business total increased to 13 after the city had recorded five or less in the first five months. And Medway’s totals had gone up by one to 13, since earlier in the pandemic.
