A momentary user connected to the COVID-19 outbreak of a marriage in Millinocket died, and the number of infections among members of a Church in Sanford whose pastor celebrated marriage doubled.
Cases at Calvary Baptist Church rose from five to 10 on Thursday and state officials are meeting with church leaders to restrict spread.Still, the outbreak has generated broader considerations about the expansion of the network in York County.
Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the rate of positivity of tests in York County alone this week is 3 times higher than the state’s overall rate.
“I’m afraid if we don’t know what’s going on in York County, it may intensify and begin to affect adjacent parts of the state in the not-too-remote future,” he said.
Shah said his staff sent Todd Bell, the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Sanford, a letter describing expectations and proposing to help the church comply with state decrees that are designed to protect public health in the event of a pandemic.other people or less and require a mask in closed public places.
“If those needs are met, they are themselves violations of the decree,” he said. “We have high expectations for compliance.”
Virtual facilities are advised and in-person facilities will have to adhere to state rules, bell’s letter says.
Shah said it was too early to say whether the state would sanction the church and that the purpose of fulfilling it.Bell has not commented publicly on the outbreak or returned several messages left through reporters.
The CDC director also showed that the death Wednesday of a Somerset County man in his 60s similar to the August 7 wedding at Millinocket, which is now related to more than 140 cases.to a wedding guest.
Posters from Calvary Baptist Church in Sanford hang from a nearby High Street in Sanford on August 30.Shawn Patrick Ouellette / Staff Photographer
Shah said fitness officials are still investigating whether the Calvary Baptist Church outbreak is similar to the marriage, which Bell officiated, and attended by six couples in his church.Madison.
Bell, according to a biography on the church website, arrived in Maine in 1996 from North Carolina and introduced several churches, adding Tri-Town Baptist Church in East Millinocket, where the wedding rite was held, and Calvary Baptist Church.
In 2009, he opened Sanford Christian Academy, a personal affiliation with the church.
Todd Bell in 2017
Although Bell did not talk to the media about the epidemic in his church, he approached it in a fiery sermon on Sunday.The video posted on YouTube, however, has been deleted.
Bell has also mistakenly cast doubts about masks, which public fitness experts say are to restrict the spread of the virus, especially indoors.
“The masks are a bit like keeping a mosquito out of a fence,” he says.
Research shows that the mask is a tool to restrict the spread of COVID-19, preventing the spread of respiratory droplets that carry the virus from other inflamed people to others.
Bell then shared erroneous data on vaccines with the faithful and encouraged them to vaccinate in opposition to COVID-19 when available.
Some citizens of Sanford have expressed their unease about the church epidemic, adding Megan Gean-Gendron, who runs York County’s shelter programs.Gean-Gendron said this week that he prohibits church volunteers from participating in his organization’s meal program.
“For me, you either stick to the commands or you don’t. There is no unusual terrain,” he said.
Shah said the epidemic of prisons and churches and other cases in York County are of grave concern.
“York County is guilty of much of what we see in our figures across the state,” he said.
In total, Maine reported on new instances of COVID-19 on Thursday, the time in a week when the state had more than 50 instances in a day.Eighteen of those cases occurred in York County.
Since the start of the pandemic, Maine has tracked 4,617 COVID-19 cases and 133 deaths.
Prior to Thursday’s instance buildup, the Maine CDC reported an increase, 55 new instances, on August 28.In the following days, the state reported more typical instances since July, between 16 and 24 according to the day.
The outbreak in the York County jail includes 46 inmates, 18 workers and a contracted provider, county officials said Thursday. York County Sheriff Bill King reported Wednesday that three other workers tested positive.The explanation for the discrepancy is unclear on Thursday.
Maine CDC said Thursday that seven members of the criminal workers’ family also tested positive, bringing the most recent number of cases to 72.Ten more family members were reported Wednesday as a component of the outbreak, but have since tested negative, the CDC said.
For several days there have been widespread criminal tests, given the vulnerability of the population, the number of cases is considered to increase, the offender has been examining each prisoner on arrival for some time, but it is not known how staff members are evaluated.Maine CDC said a staff member attended the wedding in Millinocket.
There were also two cases at scarborough’s regional mail processing plant, according to two union presidents who make up the staff there.The last time a station worker tested positive in March, they said.
Mark Seitz, president of the National Association of Local Postmen 92, said he became aware of the first case last Friday.The case at the time was reported to union leaders on Tuesday.
Since then, postal officials have quarantined eight other people who may have had positive contact with the other two people, Seitz said.The other two people who tested positive are not members of their union, representing fewer points running at the plant.
“I’m sure there will be more of them, because of the number of other people who paint there, (and) the closeness that everyone has to others,” Seitz said.”Not everyone wears a mask.”
Scott Adams, president of Local 458 of the U.S. Postal Workers Union, which represents mail employees, showed the two recent cases, but refused to give details.
Adams does not believe that the plant environment has become a vector of transmission, and believes it is the habit of other people outdoors, whether they attend rallies or move to restaurants, and then bring the virus with them.
“I’d expect more cases, just for what happens outside the postal service,” Adams said.”I don’t think our plant is a contributing factor.I see it as, “Here we pass again, other people have let their guard down.”Everyone comes back in public.”
Editor-in-chief Matt Byrne contributed to this story
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