A month ago I wrote about how Maine was the only state in New England unable to post negative test results counts each day, a number that allows the calculation of positivity percentages and the ability to gauge if upticks in cases are related to increased testing.
In yesterday’s Portland Press Herald I reported that Maine is now the only state in the entire country that is — a month later — still unable to do this, and that it is now Maine CDC policy to keep it that way.
The reasons this is a problem – and reaction from national experts — in the story.
Also, for those tracking our exclusive data on hospital-by-hospital Covid-19 in-patient counts, I’ve reported on these for the fourth and now fifth weeks running. They remain essentially flat, which is great news, though hospitalizations are a lagging indicator of infection by about two weeks.
Finally, because I’m waiting for dinner to come out of the oven, here are the updated pandemic burdens on Maine hospitals, measured by total confirmed Covid-19 patient days:
1. Maine Medical Center (Portland) – 1068 patient days
2. Southern Maine Health Care (Biddeford) – 217 patient days
3. MaineGeneral (Augusta) – 186 patient days
4. Mid Coast Hospital (Brunswick) – 164 patient days
5. Eastern Maine Medical Center (Bangor) – 139 patient days
6. Mercy Hospital (Portland) – 133 patient days
7. York Hospital (York) – 129 patient days
8. Central Maine Medical Center (Lewiston) – 110 patient days
9. Waldo Memorial (Belfast) – 24 patient days
10. Franklin Memorial (Farmington) – 12 patient days
No change in the top four rankings since I did this two weeks ago, but lots of changes thereafter.
COLIN WOODARD is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist. He is the author of six 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 the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram he won a 2012 George Polk Award and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2016. He is a contributing editor at POLITICO and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, Smithsonian and dozens of other major publications.