The number of coronavirus patients admitted to the Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor continued to increase during the last days of 2020, even as the numbers dropped slightly in other hospitals in the state.
A record 55 coronavirus patients were hospitalized at Bangor hospital on New Year’s Eve, accounting for nearly a third of the state’s nearly 177 daily hospitalizations for viruses, according to data from the parent organization Northern Light Health.
An average of 52 patients were hospitalized at the EMMC – the state’s second largest hospital – each day for the past week, against 44 the week before Christmas and 27 the week before.
This increase is because the state’s largest hospital, Maine Medical Center in Portland, saw an average of only 32 patients last week.
The total number of coronavirus patients hospitalized in Maine also decreased somewhat from a record 198 on December 14, according to the COVID Screening Project. The average was 183 in the last week.
However, some health officials have expressed concern that internal meetings and Christmas and New Year holidays may contribute to new waves of infections in the coming weeks, even as health professionals and nursing home residents are starting to get vaccinated.
At EMMC, officials recently placed new restrictions on family visits to patients to help reduce the risk of the virus spreading. The hospital also recently had to contain a coronavirus outbreak that infected at least 48 people, including some patients in a surgical post-operative unit. However, the hospital said some of the cases were also caused by workers who caught the virus in the community.
So far, the hospital has not had to take drastic measures to free up staff and capacity, such as systematically delaying other procedures, such as mammograms and colonoscopies, according to Northern Light Health spokeswoman Suzanne Spruce.
“Our growing numbers at Northern Light Health [hospitals] and specifically at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center are, of course, an ongoing concern, ”said Spruce. “At this point, we can maintain our critical and routine services, but continue to monitor the capacity of beds, personnel and other resources and we will adjust accordingly.”
Spruce also reiterated the need for Mainers to take measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus and decrease the risk that more workers or people could become ill, including “wearing facial covers in public, avoiding meetings outside the home, practicing good hand hygiene and staying at least six feet away. ”