PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Thursday extended a state of civil emergency for another 30 days, through Thanksgiving.
The announcement came a day after Mills pleaded with Mainers to follow public health rules amid a growing number of coronavirus cases.
“Rising case counts show that this virus is still very much among us and we must take every precaution to slow its spread,” Mills said Thursday.
It was the governor’s eighth extension of a state of civil emergency, which may be issued only in 30-day increments. The declaration allows Maine to tap into federal resources and to deploy all available tools to respond to and contain the pandemic.
In other coronavirus-related news:
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THE NUMBERS
Another 80 coronavirus cases have been reported in Maine, the Maine Center for Disease Control reported Thursday.
That brings the total number of virus cases to 6,467 while the number of deaths was unchanged at 146, the agency said.
The seven-day average has doubled in the last month, setting a record of 53.8 that eclipses the previous mark set in late May.
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PHOTOS-QUARANTINE
A physician’s assistant is in hot water over posing without a mask for photos with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, congressional candidates Dale Crafts and Jay Allen, and former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin.
Michelle Kaplan, who is running for Maine House District 132, insists she supports masks. She said she pulled hers down briefly for the photo with the others, who were not wearing masks during President Donald Trump appearance Sunday at Treworgy Family Orchards in Levant.
Critics contacted her employer, Mount Desert Hospital, for supposedly endangering patients, the Sun Journal reported.
Art Blank, the hospital president, confirmed that Kaplan worked a shift that Sunday night “and is currently in quarantine.” But insisted he could not discuss personnel matters beyond that.
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