PORTLAND, Maine — Editor’s note: The video above aired Nov. 30, 2021.
Nearly 850 employees of the MaineHealth system were absent Wednesday after contracting or being exposed to COVID, up from about 200 per day before Christmas.
The “surge” of absences among the system’s 22,000 employees is further straining health care resources already overextended due to the nearly two-year-long pandemic.
In a release Wednesday, MaineHealth officials urged people to get vaccinated or “boosted” to help ease the “tremendous” stress on health care workers.
“We need help from our community,” Dr. Doug Sawyer, interim chief medical officer at MaineHealth, said in part.
The spike is likely due to the highly contagious omicron variant reaching Maine and New Hampshire. It only complicates already near-record hospitalizations for COVID, the ongoing nationwide labor shortage in health care, and high demand by patients who postponed previous health care due to the pandemic.
Hospital officials also asked people who test positive for COVID at home with an antigen test not to visit emergency departments, urgent care centers, or emergency rooms for confirmation unless they need emergency medical care.
“At-home antigen tests are reliable if they’re positive, and you have symptoms,” Dora Anne Mills, MaineHealth’s chief health improvement officer, said. “There is no need to have a confirmatory PCR test before you begin following CDC guidelines for isolation.”
She encouraged people who test positive to contact their primary care provider to determine if follow-up care is necessary. Signs that emergency care is needed include trouble breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, new confusion, inability to wake or stay awake, and bluish lips or face.
Mills referred people to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website to treat mild COVID at home.