Covid Update: October 30

Covid-19 cases are surging across the country, and Maine is not immune. At his regular press briefing on Thursday, October 29, Dr. Nirav Shah, Director of Maine CDC, announced a new one-day high of 80 new cases in the state. The previous one-day high of 76 cases was recorded just one day earlier.

The state’s positivity rate is now at 0.8%, which is nearly double what it was just two weeks ago.

Earlier in the pandemic, cases were clustered in Maine’s more densely populated areas, including York County, but numbers are now rapidly increasing in the more rural parts of the state as well. Community transmission has now been identified in Somerset County.

In Sanford, the latest data (as of October 25) shows 162 cumulative cases in Sanford, and another 47 in Springvale, for a total of 209 in our community. This is an increase of 5 cases since the previous update. The prior two weeks saw increases of 5 cases (last week) and 4 cases (the week before), so the pandemic is still spreading here, but at a steady rate.

The last positive case of Covid-19 in Sanford schools was reported on October 7, part of the High School outbreak. No positive cases have been reported in Sanford schools other than SHS/SRTC.