AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Janet Mills announced Wednesday that she has activated up to 75 members of the Maine National Guard to assist with capacity challenges at hospitals across the state.
This comes amid a sustained surge of COVID hospitalizations in the state. As of Wednesday, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported a record-high 379 people hospitalized with COVID in Maine.
Of those 379 people, 117 are in critical care, and 60 are on ventilators. As of Wednesday, there are 42 available critical care beds in Maine — 31 adult beds and 11 youth beds.
“I am activating the Maine National Guard, and, in consultation with our health care systems, will be deploying them to expand our hospitals’ ability to treat people with COVID and other serious medical conditions," Mills said. "I do not take this action lightly, but we must take steps to alleviate the strain on our health care system and ensure care for all those who need it."
According to Mills, the National Guard members will be used in non-clinical support roles at nursing facilities and swing bed units that accept patients discharged from hospitals experiencing critical care capacity challenges.
"We care about the community because we are the community. Maine has been counting on us since day one and they can continue to count on us now," said Maine National Guard Major Carl Lamb.
Mills said the additional support will allow hospitals to provide inpatient care for more people with COVID and care for patients with other serious health problems.
The National Guard members will also help administer antibodies to prevent serious illness from COVID, which Mills said will help patients out of critical care, preserving intensive care unit capacity.
Central Maine Medical Center said it will be getting at least 12 members as early as next week. Central Maine Healthcare's Dr. John Alexander said members will also help to open a skilled nursing unit in the hospital to help with a backlog of patients who need long-term or rehab care.
"It will be a huge help for us because that means we can open up beds for patients within our community," Alexander said.
Leaders from across MaineHealth said during a press conference Wednesday that an unprecedented surge in COVID hospitalizations among the unvaccinated is pushing their network to the brink.
“Maine’s hospitals have borne the lion’s share of the impact of COVID, from treating COVID patients, to helping with testing and spearheading vaccination efforts – to say nothing of the secondary effects of the pandemic such as increased mental health challenges and problems from delayed health care,” Jeanne Lambrew, commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine CDC, said in a release Wednesday. “We are profoundly grateful for the governor’s decisive action and our health care workers' — and National Guard’s — heroic work.”
Mills said she expects members of the National Guard will be deployed beginning next week through the end of January 2022. Locations will be determined in collaboration with the leadership of Maine’s health care systems, she said.