Maine's top health official says the number of new cases of the coronavirus is growing and he's warning about a "geometric surge." Another health official is worried about outbreaks "coalescing into one big fire."
Dr. Nirav Shah, the director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that with community transmission cases can keep doubling rapidly.
"I am extremely, extremely concerned," Shah told the Portland Press Herald.
Dr. Dora Anne Mills, chief health improvement officer at MaineHealth, the state's largest hospital network, said that in York County a lot of people are testing positive for the virus from all age groups and people who are healthy and "not so healthy" who have no idea where they were infected.
"It's not just that we have several outbreaks there, but that they are coalescing into one big fire," Mills said.
More on the Coronavirus in Maine
On Friday, York County's seven-day average of new cases hit an all-time high of 15.7 per day, nearly double the previous peak of 8.7 set on July 2. Case numbers are also climbing in Oxford County.
An additional 15 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in the state, the Maine Center for Disease Control said Monday. It was the lowest total of new confirmed cases since the middle of the month.
The total number of confirmed cases is 5,300, the Maine CDC said. The number of deaths remained 140. The average number of new cases per day was 30, which was about the same as it was a week ago.
