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.
I have always had great respect and admiration for your insights and excellent reporting. But this article and analysis appear to be complete rubbish. Maine's infection rates are so low that "experts" from other states quoted are I think being quoted without adequate information about Maine's actual situation. It appears they were somewhat set up to provide the quotes you were looking for. Again, I view you as exceptionally talented journalist so am surprised you have written such a bogus article.
ReplyDeleteAll the experts were apprised of Maine's situation, including its relatively low infection rates. None of them thought it made sense to not compile this data on a daily basis.
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