Medical workers assist with coronavirus screening March 31 under a white tent at the MaineGeneral Medical Center, Thayer Center for Health in Waterville. Morning Sentinel file photo by Rich Abrahamson

WATERVILLE — Officials of the city’s two hospitals say screenings continued this week for people infected by coronavirus and that diagnosed patients were being treated.

Officials at MaineGeneral Health, which operates hospitals in Augusta and Waterville, said they currently had five patients in the hospital testing positive for COVID-19. All told, MaineGeneral has had seven total hospitalizations and one death that occurred last week connected to coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 illness.

“We continue to maintain our COVID-19 page on our website with the most up-to-date information for patients and the community,” said Joy McKenna, a MaineGeneral spokeswoman.

Officials at the Maine Center for Disease Control have reported more than 500 total coronavirus cases in Maine, including 14 deaths and more than 170 recoveries.

At Northern Light Inland Hospital, spokesman Andy Soucier said the system would not report on patient-specific numbers at the Waterville hospital, citing privacy concerns, but would defer to the Maine CDC to report on county numbers and reports of death from the virus.

“As a system with an internal testing laboratory, we test a number of people for a number of organizations for COVID-19. To date, we have tested 1,808 people and 54 of those tests have been confirmed positive for COVID-19,” Soucier said. “Across our system, we are currently treating 18 people for the virus, and six of those people are inpatients.”

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Soucier said Inland’s screening hotline continues to be available for people to call to be screened for COVID-19 (844-489-1822).

“Our hotline staff will have directions to and schedules for our Medical Screening sites across the state, where we are conducting COVID-19 testing for those who meet criteria, and providing medical assessments for people with respiratory illnesses,” he said.

Northern Light Inland Hospital’s medical screening site at 250 Kennedy Memorial Drive in Waterville, at the Faith Church parking lot, has a schedule that is subject to change. It was scheduled to be open from noon to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday this week.

Northern Light Sebasticook Valley Hospital in Pittsfield also has a medical screening site at 141 Leighton St.

 

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