Maine: All counties now safe for in-school instruction

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Every county in Maine is now safe for in-person learning in schools, the Maine Department of Education has said.

The state has been using a color-coded system to advise schools of the level of risk of coronavirus transmission. The education department said Androscoggin, Franklin, Oxford and York counties have all been moved to the “green” category, which is the lowest risk category.

The counties “have seen dramatic drops in their new case rates and positivity rates for the past two weeks, and are now aligned with other counties,” the education department said. It’s the first time every county in the state has been in the green category since the middle of October.

Keeping schools in the low-risk category will require continued mask use, social distancing and staying home when sick, state education commissioner Pender Makin said.

“That’s what people really need to keep doing to keep schools at the green level,” Makin said.

Counties that get designated “yellow,” or moderate risk, have been advised to consider additional precautions and hybrid instructional models, state officials have said. There’s also a “red,” or high risk, category that has not been invoked.

The Maine Department of Education and Maine Department of Health and Human Services also said Tuesday that the state has purchased 250,000 rapid antigen tests that will be prioritized for schools. The tests are designed to detect an infection in about 15 minutes, the departments said.

In other news related to the pandemic in Maine:

THE NUMBERS

The latest average positivity rate in Maine is 3.74%. State health departments are calculating positivity rate differently across the country, but for Maine the AP calculates the rate by dividing new cases by test specimens using data from The COVID Tracking Project.

The seven-day rolling average of the positivity rate in Maine has risen over the past two weeks from 3.59% on Feb. 1 to 3.74% on Feb. 15.

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention has reported more than 42,000 positive cases of the virus and 651 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

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VARIANT CASE

Another case of a variant of COVID-19 that was first discovered in the United Kingdom has been detected in Maine. The variant has been detected in more than two thirds of states and Maine health authorities announced its first discovery in Maine last week.

Maine CDC director Dr. Nirav Shah said Tuesday the new Maine case appears unrelated to the first. The infected person is isolating and doing well, he said.

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PANDEMIC HOMELESSNESS

Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins has joined a group of senators that has introduced an act designed to help tackle the problem of homelessness amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The proposal, called the Emergency Family Stabilization Act, would create a new grant program that provides flexible funding for community organizations that are “working to meet the unique and challenging needs of children, youth, and families experiencing homelessness,” Collins’ office said in a statement. The senator’s office said the act “aims to provide emergency funding to underserved populations and areas, including rural and tribal communities, who continue to see long-term repercussions of the COVID-19 outbreak.”

Collins said youths and families that are experiencing homelessness are a greater risk of transmitting COVID-19.

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MAPLE SYRUP

It’s too early to say whether this year’s Maine Maple Sunday can take place, Shah said. The event, which is always the fourth Sunday in March, was one of the first major Maine events canceled by the pandemic last year.

A scaled down version of the event, which celebrates maple syrup at dozens of sugar shacks, ended up taking place in October last year. Shah said the future of this year’s event is currently a “wait and see” scenario.

“I know how sweet this holiday is for so many people,” he said.