Experts say more widespread testing of people without symptoms is essential to beating the pandemic and restoring the economy.
Colin Woodard
Colin Woodard is the Press Herald’s State and National Affairs Writer, and is often at work on large investigative projects. Born in Waterville and raised in western Maine, he was a foreign correspondent for two decades, reported from more than fifty countries on all seven continents, and witnessed the collapse of communism and its bloody aftermath in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. He’s written five books, including histories of Maine (The Lobster Coast), North America’s rival regional cultures (American Nations) and the Golden Age Pirates (Republic of Pirates), which was turned into a quickly forgotten NBC mini-series starring John Malkovich as Blackbeard. Since joining the Press Herald in 2012, he’s won a George Polk Award and was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting. He used to be an avid sailor and SCUBA diver, but with small kids at home, his hobbies now include sleeping and picking up toys.
Posted inHealth, Local & State
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Maine stay flat for 5th week
The data don’t likely reflect any effects yet of loosened social distancing measures.
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Posted inHealth, Local & State
Maine is the only state that’s not calculating positive test rate daily
The Maine CDC says the proportion of people testing positive for COVID-19 is a key metric used to monitor outbreaks and guide reopening, but it is calculating the rate only once a week.
Posted inLocal & State, Nation & World, News
Neighboring New Brunswick has kept the coronavirus in check. Here’s how.
Maine’s doppelganger neighbor, which acted early and decisively, has had no deaths and no nursing home outbreaks, and is down to just 2 active cases.
Posted inHealth, Local & State
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Maine flat for 4th week, but upticks in Portland and Bangor
Outbreaks at a meat plant, a rehab facility and a homeless shelter may account for the increases, as it’s too early to see any effects of loosened restrictions.
Posted inLocal & State
Maine reopening with ‘bare minimum’ testing strategy
The state’s plan calls for a doubling or tripling of statewide testing capacity, but more robust approaches would require 20 or 30 times that.
Posted inHealth, Local & State, News
Hospitalizations of Maine COVID-19 patients flatten or decline for 3rd week
Despite outbreaks in a Portland poultry processing plant and a Bangor homeless shelter, hospitalizations are down in those cities from a week ago.
Posted inLocal & State
Maine now the only New England state that won’t release COVID-19 cases by town
Vermont joined the rest of the region Monday in the practice, which gives finer-level information about the spread of the pandemic.
Posted inLocal & State, News
Numbers of virus patients in Maine hospitals continue to flatten and decline
Restricting activity in the state has flattened the COVID-19 curve and taken the pressure off hospitals, a Press Herald analysis finds, but dangers remain.
Posted inLocal & State, News
Protective gear wasn’t allocated to states based on population, despite administration’s claims
Maine got less than a third as many N95 respirators per capita as Vermont and Rhode Island but nearly three times as many as Texas.