Maine is now the only state in New England that won’t release the number of Covid-19 cases by town, rather than by county.
Vermont on Monday introduced the higher-resolution reporting. Rhode Island releases their case information on a zip code level.
As I report in today’s Portland Press Herald, many experts say this is a mistake at this stage in the pandemic, especially as the policy conversation turns to how one considers loosening social distancing restrictions — often a municipal decision in Maine and other “home rule” states. Maine has also lagged the other five New England states in many measures of data sharing, and remains the only state in the region that can’t report negative test numbers on a daily basis.
COLIN WOODARD is a New York Times bestselling author, historian and award-winning journalist. He is the author of seven books that have been translated into a dozen foreign languages and inspired an NBC television drama. He is currently Director of Nationhood Lab at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Affairs at Salve Regina University. As State and National Affairs Writer at Maine's Portland Press Herald, he won a 2012 George Polk Award and was a finalist for a 2016 Pulitzer Prize. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, The Economist, Smithsonian and dozens of other major publications.