Optional Daily Updates

Good morning - we hope that you're safe and healthy as we all deal with the critical work of operating local government in this complicated time. Since the start of the pandemic, when Cumberland County's Executive Office transitioned to remote operations, our Public Affairs office has sent a daily update to Commissioners and senior staff. The update contains the latest COVID-19 statistics statewide and in Cumberland County in a helpful graphic, weekly trend data about the disease at state and local levels, relevant updates from Dr. Shah's daily press conferences and announcements from the Governor's office, and occasionally links to news items that are important to our region on subjects that are related to the pandemic: like unemployment statistics, the status of state and federal policymaking, progress on scientific research and modeling.

Sometimes these updates are brief, if there isn't much new relevant news to report; but we always send the daily stats in a graphic like the one you'll see below. Staff and the Commissioners have found these daily roundups helpful, and we realized there's no reason we can't share them more far and wide. Below is yesterday's update, to give you an idea of what these look like (yesterday's was especially data heavy). We usually send them around 3pm, shortly after the conclusion of the daily press conference.

If you'd like to start receiving these, send a note to kennedy@cumberlandcounty.org and we'll be happy to add you to the list.

If you aren't interested in getting the daily email but like to see the stat graphics, like or follow our Facebook page. We post them there daily, as well as on our Covid-19 resources page.

Stay safe out there, and take care of each other.

Good afternoon - another reasonably low growth in cases today, and no deaths. Here's the daily update:

The only significant update on outbreaks in Cumberland County is that there are 16 cases at the family shelter in Portland.

Here are the seven day trend worksheets. You can see that new cases and recoveries have been running about neck and neck for a while, even as the state is testing more broadly (more on that below) and that spike in hospitalizations over the previous week, as well as that mysterious dip in total hospitalizations a few days ago.

The state has finally started to share a breakdown of cases by zip code, which in Maine is very close to a breakdown by municipality. They are withholding data in zip codes with less than 50 people or with fewer than 5 cases. Here's the data of cumulative cases for Cumberland County as of Tuesday, which is the only day they've provided so far.

This data is clearly something people in our region have been hungry for; I shared the above chart on our Facebook page, and within about an hour it was already one of the most active posts in our page's history. It's important to note that considering the state's historic restrictions on testing combined with the number of people who either don't exhibit symptoms or only exhibit mild ones, the spread of COVID-19 across our county is significantly higher than this; and for many, it's still very deadly. Note that statewide, the percentage of people who have been diagnosed with the disease and end up passing away is still almost 4%. In Cumberland County, it's 4.34%.

Commissioner Johnson from Maine DECD announced today that the state is accelerating business reopening in rural counties, which of course does not impact us. Tasting rooms and bars, gyms and fitness centers, nail salons, and tattoo and piercing parlors can now open across most of the state.

The Commissioner also announced their work on replacing the 14 day quarantine, based on feedback they have spent the past week collecting from businesses, communities and public health experts. The Cumberland County town managers got a look at a draft of this plan earlier this week; in short, it involves more testing, signage, and screening. There may be ways that Cumberland County can help our towns do some of this work regionally. Expect a more detailed announcement from the Governor's office within the next few days.

Getting back to positivity rates: Dr. Shah mentioned that with the expansion of testing, yesterday's daily positivity rate was just over 2% - which is just above the state's goal, and the rate that South Korea attained before gradually reopening their country. In other states, the daily positivity rate is significantly higher; Massachusetts, for example, is still seeing daily positivity rates in the 6-12% range. This means the state is doing a good job keeping the disease under control, but it's also a stark reminder that COVID-19 continues to spread rapidly just south of our border.