COVID-19 hospitalizations in Maine fell to the lowest levels since the first days of the pandemic this week, and the Maine Medical Center reported the fewest patients since the first week of the crisis.
As cases, hospitalizations, and deaths increase in the southern and southwestern United States, overwhelming intensive care units, Maine hospitals have experienced seven weeks of low levels of inpatients with COVID-19, even when Governor Janet Mills has cracked down on strict blocking measures that mitigated the virus. The virus spread in April and May.
The Maine Medical Center in Portland, which has handled nearly half of the state’s coronavirus burden for most of the crisis, averaged just 3.3 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 each day during the week ending Thursday. , below the maximum daily census counts of 35 on April 7. and on May 25. That was the lowest level since the week ending March 19, the week Maine recorded its first confirmed cases and hospitalizations.
Portland’s other major hospital, Mercy, had almost the same number of patients, averaging 3.1 per day, compared to 1.6 the week before and 2.9 the week before, but still only about a third of its mid-load. or the end of May.
York County’s largest hospital, Southern Maine Health Care Medical Center in Biddeford, averaged 2.1 patients per day, while York Hospital has not reported an inpatient with COVID-19 since June 22.
Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston had an average of 2.7 confirmed hospitalized patients with COVID-19 for the week, slightly more than 2.4 the previous week, while the other city hospital, St. Mary’s has had no such patients since June 30.
Maine General in Augusta, the hospital that has had the third-largest pandemic load to date after Maine Med and SMHC, also had no inpatients with COVID-19 during the week.
Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor averaged 2.7 inpatients per day, slightly less than 2.9 the week before, and had 1.1 the week before. Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick had one patient every weekday.
Four smaller hospitals that reported having patients during the month of June (Bridgton, Rumford, and Waldo in Belfast and Franklin Memorial in Farmington) had none during the week.
MaineHealth hospitals, including MaineMed, SMHC, Mid Coast, and Franklin, introduced a new method of reporting their daily numbers to the Press Herald this week, restoring Sunday’s census numbers for the first time in more than a month and allowing averages newspapers are recalculated.
Hospitalizations can end in three ways: recovery, death, or transfer to another facility. Data do not include outpatients or hospitalized patients suspected of having the virus but never analyzed.
Hospitalizations are a lagging indicator, as it takes an acutely affected person two to three weeks after exposure to get sick enough to be admitted, but it is a measure that is not affected by the number of people who are tested .
The Press Herald poll is for the week ending July 16. The newspaper collects data received directly from hospitals and hospital networks. It includes most state hospitals and represents the vast majority of state hospitalizations that the Maine CDC reports weekly.
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