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Maine has 2 more possible coronavirus cases, including a Portland doctor

The Maine CDC and a lab at MaineHealth have tested quite 100 samples, of which 91 were negative and 17 results are pending.

An employee of Portland’s public clinic tested presumptively positive for coronavirus, triggering a two-week closure of the clinic and therefore the self-quarantine of quite twenty-four other city staffers and volunteers.

The city employee, who is identified only as a Cumberland County resident in his 50s, was the second presumptively positive case of coronavirus in Maine.

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention is additionally reviewing preliminary positive tests for a 3rd person, a lady in her 20s who is being treated in an isolation unit at Maine center in Portland. Her test still must be reviewed by the Maine CDC, which could elevate it to a presumptive positive. Tests attend the federal CDC for final confirmation.

Maine CDC staff and MaineHealth providers are investigating the patients’ travel histories under the idea that the tests results are presumptive positive.

The new cases, which might bring Maine’s total to 3 , are heightening concerns about the spread in Maine of an epidemic that has sickened quite 130,000 across the world and killed nearly 5,000 people. Maine health officials urged residents to organize for more cases — but not panic — and to practice “social distancing” also nearly as good hygiene so as to avoid larger community transmission of coronavirus.

“We seem to be during this narrowing window of opportunity to form bound to take all of these steps,” Dr. Dora Ann Mills, MaineHealth’s chief health improvement officer, said Friday afternoon. “Making sure that if you're an older person or someone with a significant chronic medical condition, that you simply are staying faraway from groups of 10 or more people, that you simply aren't traveling, you're staying reception for the foremost part which you're not aged a plane or a cruise liner . . . and if you're not in those groups, that you simply also use social distancing and vigilant respiratory hygiene.”

The presumptive positive test for the worker at Portland’s India Street Public clinic — a facility that treats uninsured or low-income individuals also as those with substance use disorders — marked an alarming turn during a state that was among the last to report cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.

The first presumptive positive case was announced Thursday during a woman in her 50s, a Navy reservist who recently returned home to Androscoggin County after traveling in Italy.

Dr. Nirav Shah, the director of the Maine CDC, described the lady as “a model citizen” who quarantined herself after noticing symptoms and has cooperated fully with health officials as they reconstruct her interactions with others in recent weeks.

“Fortunately, those contacts were minimal, and Maine CDC has reached to all or any of them to debate what levels and precautionary measures they have to require , if any,” Shah said. “The individual continues to try to to well, she has not been hospitalized, and that we remain in touch together with her . And one among our top priorities immediately is to figure together with her to make sure her speedy recovery.”

The Maine CDC announced early Friday that preliminary tests done by a MaineHealth lab on two people showed potential infections with COVID-19. the person in his 50s, who was subsequently identified because the India Street clinic employee, was later determined to be a “presumptive positive.” The agency was still reviewing the results for the lady in her 20s Friday.

Portland officials closed hall as of three p.m. Friday out of what was described as “an abundance of caution.” Additionally, city officials asked 23 employees within the general public health division members — including all clinic staff — also as seven volunteers at the clinic to self-quarantine. the town also began the method of reaching bent clients who may have had contact with the individual who tested presumptively positive.

“We are taking this pandemic very seriously (with the) goal of protecting our staff and public health and safety,” mayor Jon Jennings said at a news conference .

Nationwide, there have been 1,629 confirmed or presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 and 41 deaths in 46 states plus the District of Columbia. Washington state and ny are the toughest hit, account for quite one-half of the reported cases, consistent with figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

President Trump declared a national emergency Friday and announced additional steps aimed toward addressing the pandemic. But the Trump administration has come under widespread criticism for botching the rollout of coronavirus testing kits to states, a backlog of results and for not testing nearly as aggressively as other countries.