Latest Covid Data & Vaccine Update

While new cases of Covid-19 are declining in most Maine cities and towns, this week Sanford and Springvale saw an increase in new cases compared to last week. 45 new cases of the virus were recorded in Sanford this week, and 12 in Springvale, for a total of 57 in our community. (Compare that to Portland, which had 60 new cases this week, but with more than three times our population.)

There have been 1,244 total cases of Covid in Sanford/Springvale since the pandemic began. Our community still leads the state of Maine in number of cases per 1,000 residents, at 59 (averaged between the two zip codes).

There have been 640 new cases of the virus in York County as a whole in the past two weeks

In his report to the City Council this week, City Manager Steven Buck said there are still four outbreaks in Sanford: at the High School, Middle School, Newton Center and at Flemish Master Weavers. He talked about the new vaccine center at the Center For Shopping in South Sanford. The opening date has been pushed back to February 25 or 26. Electricians and IT personnel have been working there this week getting the center ready. He said that MaineHealth staff will be doing the vaccinations, while other staff for the center may be provided by York County municipalities. EMTs may be involved in vaccinating homebound people, but that has not been worked out yet. He also gave a very helpful explanation of how to find and track Covid information on the Maine CDC’s website.

At the York County Commissioners’ meeting on Wednesday, York County Emergency Management Director Art Cleaves said the Sanford vaccine center will be open eight hours a day, six days a week initially, with plans to increase those hours as more vaccine becomes available. He said the Sanford Police Department will be providing security and traffic support for the clinic.

All registrations for appointments may be done through MaineHealth’s existing vaccine registration system at (877) 780-7545. It’s all done by phone, no computer is necessary. Even if you are under age 70, you can still call that number now to pre-register. MaineHealth has begun reaching out to people on a weekly basis to let them know they have a place in line.

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Image by Syaibatul Hamdi from Pixabay