MAINE, USA — Doctors from Maine's two largest hospital systems said Thursday they are seeing more young people who are unvaccinated testing positive for COVID-19.
State data shows people under age 40 make up the majority of new cases in the last 30 days.
"The positivity rate has increased pretty dramatically over the last week, and frankly, for the state, it's above the level that we saw just before that surge we saw last November and December," said Dr. James Jarvis of Northern Light Health. "That's concerning for someone like me who is trying to predict what's going to happen next. It's not a trend yet, but it's close to being a trend in increased cases."
Maine Health Chief Improvement Officer Dr. Dora Mills said that most new cases are younger and sicker than they were a year ago.
"They are almost all unvaccinated," said Dr. Mills. "We're finding that on random screening, almost all are the Delta variant right now. This is an urgent time to get vaccinated."
Dr. Mills said those who are unvaccinated are at a much higher risk of contracting COVID-19 now, due to the contagiousness of the Delta variant.
The latest data from the Maine CDC as of July 9 shows five cases of the Delta variant, with another five suspected cases the state is waiting to verify through genome sequencing.
Jarvis said the treatment and care for a patient is the same, regardless of what variant of the disease the patient has.
His concern is that an uptick in cases can lead to a rise in hospitalizations. He said he is confident that the system could handle any new surges in patients and that the system is planning just in case.
Dr. Jarvis said there are only two COVID-19 patients across the system's 10 hospitals, one of whom is a long-term patient.
"It's been several days since the last patient left Eastern Maine Medical Center. That's good for us," said Dr. Jarvis. "We are seeing an increase in positive cases of tests that we run. Most of those individuals are asymptomatic or don't require hospitalization."