Covid & Vaccination Update

The latest data on the Covid-19 pandemic shows a slight decline in new cases in our community in the past week, after sharp increases the previous few weeks. There have now been a total of 1,619 cases of the virus in Sanford, and another 379 in Springvale, for a total of 1,998. Using the latest census data, which shows our population at 21,982, that means just over 9% of Sanford/Springvale residents have been diagnosed with Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

At their meeting on September 14, members of the City Council’s Public Safety Subcommittee were presented with the latest data regarding Covid-19 in Sanford as compared to the rest of the county, state and country. They discussed a color-coded map showing the vaccination rates of each community in Maine. (Pictured above – you can access the interactive map here.) Although Sanford’s vaccination rate is now at 86%, it is not in the highest-rated category because we still have over 2,000 eligible people who are unvaccinated. If 226 more Sanford residents get the vaccine, we will be in the top category along with most of the rest of York County. Our neighbors to the west, Lebanon and Berwick, have much lower vaccination rates and are the only communities in Maine still in the lowest category, color coded red above. (Sanford is in yellow just to the right of them.)

Mayor Mastraccio said she will be interested in seeing if the federal vaccine mandate has any effect on Sanford’s data, as there are a large number of Sanford residents who work at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard as well as Pratt and Whitney, which will both be impacted by the mandate.

Another map categorized school districts by the percentage of students ages 12-18 who have been vaccinated. (View it here.) Sanford is in the 25-49% range, but we only need 90 more students to get the vaccine before we move up to the 50-74% range. The School Department has vaccination clinics scheduled over the next month which should help get us closer to that goal. We still have a way to go to catch up to most of the coastal communities, which are in the 75-100% range.