In today's Maine Centers For Disease Control press conference, Governor Janet Mills announced that she was activating members of the Maine National Guard to aid with the

Beginning next week, and running through the end of January, as many as 75 national guard members will be used in non-clinical roles.  They'll be used in support roles like food services and transport.  The thought process is that, in having these men and women perform non-clinical tasks, it will free up doctors, nurses, etc to take care of the medical needs of patients.

She also announced she plans to task national guard members with administering monoclonal antibodies to those who have been stricken with COVID-19.  If administered early enough, the treatment could prevent some people from needing to be hospitalized.

She has also requested Federal COVID Surge Response Teams to help the staff at Maine Medical Center in Portland and Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.  These teams fall under the Biden COVID-19 Winter Response Plan.  If the approval goes through, teams of doctors and nurses will travel to those hospitals to supplement current staff with battling the surge of cases.

The announcement comes as the state reported an additional 1,275 new cases of COVID-19 and eight new COVID-related deaths on Wednesday.

Governor Mills reminded us that, in the last month, more than 100 people have died with COVID-19 in the State of Maine.

In late-summer, Governor Mills mandated that most of the state's medical workers needed to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the beginning of October.  That date was later pushed back to October 29th.  According to the Portland Press Herald, hundreds of Maine healthcare workers left their places of employment, rather than get the vaccine.

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