Maine wedding reception linked to deaths of 7 people who didn’t attend

At least seven people have died in connection to a covid outbreak that continues to sicken people in Maine following a wedding reception that violated state virus guidelines. None of the seven people who have died attended the wedding. The August wedding reception at the Big Moose Inn in Millinocket is linked to more than 175 confirmed cases of covid.

Maine authorities have identified overlaps between the wedding reception and outbreaks elsewhere in the state. An outbreak at a Madison rehabilitation center, which is the site of six of the seven deaths, is connected to the wedding because an employee of the facility lives in the same household as a person who attended. The covid cases stemming from the wedding have spanned hundreds of miles in a state that had largely controlled the spread of the virus through the summer.

Maine has reported less than 5,000 cases of covid in total since March 2020. But the growing number of cases related to the wedding, which exceeded the Maine’s guidelines of 50 people or less at indoor gatherings, could undo some of that progress if it continues to swell. More than 65 people attended the wedding. The 6 people from the Madison rehabilitation facility who died were all residents of that facility and none of them attended the wedding reception.

The gains that Maine has made against covid are ones that could, and unfortunately can, be washed away.

The wedding was also officiated by pastor Todd Bell of Calvary Baptist Church in Sanford. The Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is currently investigating to determine if an outbreak at the church is connected to the wedding outbreak. That outbreak has sickened 10 people. A number of Calvary Baptist Church members attended the wedding reception.

The church is taking precautions to limit the spread of the virus, and it will defend its right to continue holding services. The Calvary Baptist Church has a legal right to meet. The authority of a local Christian church, a Jewish synagogue, or a Muslim mosque to gather for their respective religious services is a time-honored part of the country’s history since its inception.

These religious activities are also fully protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Maine CDC’s investigations suggest multiple potential points of transmission related to the August 7th 2020 wedding and reception. Maine CDC is working to limit the spread of the virus and support people affected by it. Maine’s percent positivity rate has ticked up to 0.63%.

At one point, the rate was less than half a percentage point.

The rate remains well below the national average of about 5%. The trends that Maine has seen tells that things are either getting worse or not getting better. Even though there were positive signs on the horizon, low hospitalization rates, generally favorable levels of testing, there are still concerning signs. Maine does not want those concerning signs take over the positive.

Maine public health officials have traced outbreaks in the state back to the wedding, including at York County Jail and a Madison rehabilitation center, after one staff member from each attended the wedding. A total of 80 cases have been confirmed at the building that houses the York County Jail. 39 people tested positive at the Maplecrest Rehabilitation and Living Center in Madison, including 24 residents and 15 staff members.

Six of the seven documented deaths connected to the wedding have occurred at the rehabilitation center. None of the seven people who have died attended the wedding or reception. The wedding hosted about 65 people indoors even though Maine Governor Janet Mills had ordered a 50-person limit for indoor gatherings due to the pandemic. The wedding was held at Tri Town Baptist Church and the reception at the Big Moose Inn Cabins and Campground.

State officials are investigating whether the business violated the covid orders by hosting the wedding.

Public health officials have traced cases back to the wedding throughout August 2020. It first found 24 cases by mid-August 2020. By the end of August 2020, 123 cases had been linked to the event, and by September 3rd 2020, the number had reached 143. One woman who did not attend the wedding died in August after contracting covid from an attendee. Maine officials have tracked the spread of the virus from the wedding across hundreds of miles in the state and worry it could undo the state’s progress in combating covid.

Maine has confirmed 4,415 covid cases and 137 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. Maine is a state where new cases are lower but going up. Maine has a seven-day average of 29 new cases per day. State officials are looking into whether an outbreak at Calvary Baptist Church in Stanford is connected to the wedding, after Bell officiated the wedding.

Covid cases from the wedding held in Millinocket had spread to a nursing home and a prison, both more than 100 miles away from the venue. Outbreaks linked to the wedding have unfolded at Maplecrest Rehabilitation and Living Center in Madison and York County Jail in Alfred. 72 people connected to the York County Jail have tested positive for covid. Of those, 46 are inmates, 19 work at the jail, and 7 are household members of those jail employees.

The jail is more than 220 miles away from the reception site.

Maine CDC began investigating the jail outbreak on August 21st 2020. The outbreak at the Maplecrest rehab center in Madison, which is more than 100 miles from the wedding venue, has also grown. An employee of the nursing home is a secondary case associated with the wedding outbreak. 16 people at Maplecrest have tested positive, including that person.

It is just emblematic of how quickly, silently, and efficiently covid can spread. The Big Moose Inn is a 37-acre property that includes a restaurant, cabins, and campgrounds near Baxter State Park. The inn has hosted weddings since the 1970s and can accommodate 100 guests in its Fredericka’s Restaurant. Maine CDC is investigating other points of connection with the group, including the ceremony held at Tri Town Baptist Church.

The wedding reception had approximately 65 guests, in violation of Maine’s 50-person cap for indoor events. Maine CDC delivered an imminent health hazard citation to the owners of Big Moose Inn for this violation. In defense, Big Moose Inn staff said they misinterpreted the state’s rules on social distancing. Big Moose Inn understood that there could be no more than 50 persons in its largest room, the inn did make an error in the interpretation of that rule.

Big Moose Inn’s interpretation was that it could take a wedding party of more than 50 persons, and split them between two rooms as long as it did not exceed its total capacity or a specific room’s capacity.

By the last week of August 2020, officials traced 53 cases of covid linked to people who attended the wedding in three separate Maine towns. 147 Maine residents who either had gone to the wedding or got second-hand infections were recorded as having the virus. No outbreak is an island. What this really hammers home is that outbreaks are not isolated events.

One outbreak can quickly lead to several more outbreaks, especially in a close geographic area. Infections from the outbreak at the wedding spread to a jail 230 miles south in Alfred because a jail employee had attended the wedding, two nursing homes, and to the Calvary Baptist Church, 225 miles away in Sanford. One of those victims includes Theresa Dentremont, 83, who died at Millinocket Regional Hospital on August 21st 2020 after contracting covid.

Dentremont did not attend the wedding, but hospital staff believed she was infected by someone who did. Dentremont’s 97-year-old husband, Frank Dentremont, who is a WWII veteran and the oldest resident of East Millinocket, was hospitalized at the same facility a few days later with covid. Dentremont’s husband since recovered and was due to be discharged from the hospital.

Overall, the United States has counted more than six million cases and 186,000 deaths.

On August 25th 2020, 60 people are associated with that one outbreak, its impacts are widespread. One person, one contact, can light a match and spark a fire that Maine may be unable to put out. That is what covid is like. The median age of confirmed cases is 41 years old, with a range of those who have tested positive spanning from 4 years old up to 98 years old.

Of the cases that have been detected, 83% have been individuals who are symptomatic. Through contact tracing, Maine CDC were able to determine that the virus entered the nursing home through a staff member who had been in contact with his parent. The parent was infected by their other child, who had attended the wedding. Maplecrest offers nursing care and rehabilitation services.

These recent examples demonstrate how aggressive and how opportunistic this virus is, and how quickly it can move from one community to another. Maine CDC is investigating other points of connection with the group including the ceremony that was held at Tri Town Baptist Church. Maine CDC delivered an imminent health hazard citation to the owners of Big Moose Inn, the owners agree to comply to all these issues they were cited for going forward.

There is not a financial penalty associated with the citation, but there could be if there is further evidence of noncompliance. Maine CDC continues to investigate the outbreak and spread within the state.