COLUMBIA FALLS, Maine (AP) - The coronavirus pandemic has once again canceled a tiny Maine town’s annual celebration of a small fish and the arrival of spring.
Columbia Falls, in Down East Maine, is home to the Downeast Salmon Federation’s Annual Smelt Fry. The event celebrates migratory fish, with a particular focus on smelts.
The salmon federation said Tuesday that organizers are “going to take one more year off from our favorite rite of spring and cancel our 2021 Smelt Fry.” The event, usually held in April, often draws large crowds to feast on smelts in the town of about 560 people.
The event last took place in April 2019. Organizers said the safest decision was to cancel the event as they did in 2020 and “look ahead to a smeltier spring 2022.”
In other news related to the pandemic in Maine:
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THE NUMBERS
Maine health authorities said Wednesday that the state has reported 48,972 cases of the virus since the start of the pandemic. The state has also reported 731 deaths.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Maine has risen over the past two weeks from 160.29 new cases per day on March 8 to 196.86 new cases per day on March 22. The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths in Maine did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 3.50 deaths per day on March 8 to 0.86 deaths per day on March 22.
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SAFETY RULES UPDATED
Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, announced some updates to the state’s pandemic rules for restaurants and camps on Wednesday.
The governor’s office said the rules for seated food and drink establishments have been updated to permit buffets and self-service food stations. The rules also allow bar areas to remain open after the kitchen closes.
The office also said the rules for day and overnight camps have been changed to allow overnight camps “of all sessions and lengths to operate and encourages camps to develop a COVID-19 testing strategy.”
The changes all went into effect immediately, the governor’s office said.
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VACCINE PREREGISTRATION
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention has launched a website designed to help residents register for a coronavirus vaccine.
State health authorities have said the registration website isn’t designed to supplant the registry systems already in place from health care providers such as MaineHealth and Martin’s Point. Residents who use it are asked to enter some brief biographical information.
The website states that “all Maine residents can pre-register now, so that when it is your turn, we can contact you to provide options.”
Everyone age 50 and older is eligible for the vaccine. Eligibility expands to everyone 16 and over on April 19.
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This story has been corrected to show that the smelt event was last held in April 2019, not April 2021.
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