Outbreak probe opened at Huntington Common in Kennebunk

KENNEBUNK, Maine — An outbreak investigation has been opened at Huntington Common after eight cases of COVID-19 were identified among the assisted living center’s residents and staff, state officials announced Wednesday.

There are four cases of the virus among the center’s residents and four among staff, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Nirav Shah said. 

The outbreak probe at Huntington Common was one of six new investigations announced Wednesday statewide, as Maine and much of the nation grapple with rising cases of the virus.

More:Durgin Pines COVID-19 death toll rises to 7

Tom Kessler, vice president of operations for Sunrise Senior Living, which operates Huntington Common, said the facility's team is working closely with Maine CDC.

Residents and self-quarantining, with meals delivered to their suites, and team members who have tested positive for the virus will quarantine at home, Kessler said.

"All residents receive regular temperature and symptom checks, and team members are screened at the beginning of each shift regarding travel history, symptoms of COVID-19 and potential exposure to the virus," Kessler said.

Weekly testing will continue for all residents and team members until 14 consecutive days have passed without any new positive cases, he said.

Shah said state officials have been working with nursing homes and other long-term care facilities to make sure they have the information and supplies they need to keep combating the spread of the virus, as the state’s caseload swells.

“I think what's happened is that, as the prevalence of COVID-19 has increased, the likelihood that it could be introduced into a nursing home has gone up commensurately,” he said.

“But what's also changed from earlier in the pandemic, is a much finer awareness of infection control practices, the need for assiduous face coverings within facilities, things of that nature,” he added. “So they've both increased in concert.”

Maine Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew said the additional rules and guidelines that officials have implemented for congregate care settings have also contributed to the state’s relative success in keeping the virus under control.

“In one of the oldest states in the nation, the fact that we had the third lowest nursing facility per capita infection rate for COVID-19 is a testament to the hard work that our nursing facilities, our CNAs, our frontline workers have made as well as our teams here at the department in supporting those nursing facilities,” Lambrew said.

In other coronavirus news in Maine:

Contact tracing rules redefined as flu season arrives

With COVID-19 surging at the same time as flu season, the Maine CDC will only investigate coronavirus infections based on a positive lab test.

Contact tracers will no longer investigate people who had close contact with someone who's infected, even if they're showing symptoms, unless there's a positive test. The change is because of the arrival of influenza, which has symptoms resembling COVID-19, Shah said.

The "adjustment ensures that all available COVID-19 response resources can be focused on lab-positive cases,” he said Wednesday.

Dr. Dora Anne Mills, the chief health improvement officer for MaineHealth, said the change in policy makes sense.

"The state has recognized that they have staffing limitations. You need to spend those resources where they can be most effective, on positive cases," she told the Portland Press Herald.

With so many cases, it was already becoming difficult to investigate every person who may have had close contact with those who are infected.

Latest numbers

Maine CDC reported 217 new cases Thursday and one additional death. More than 9,700 cases of the coronavirus and 171 deaths have been reported by the state since the pandemic began.

The seven-day average number of new daily cases in Maine rose to 194 on Thursday, up from 116 new daily cases two weeks ago and 34 new daily cases four weeks ago, according to Maine CDC data.

The number of COVID-19 patients in critical care beds in Maine rose to 35 on Thursday, a new record for the state, according to Maine CDC data. Another 92 critical care beds were still available across the state.

The latest average positivity rate in Maine is 1.86%. State health departments are calculating positivity rate differently across the country, but for Maine the Associated Press 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 1.28% on Nov. 4 to 1.86% on Nov. 18.

This report includes material from the Associated Press.