Maine Wedding and Reception Leaves 147 People Infected and Three Dead From COVID-19

Last month, we reported that over 50 people were infected with COVID-19 after attending an indoor Maine wedding and reception.

Maine’s limit on social gatherings were 50, but at least 65 people attended the August 7 ceremony at the Tr-Town Baptist Church and the reception at Big Moose Inn in Millinocket, according to the Daily Mail.

Last week, officials traced 53 cases of the coronavirus to people who attended the wedding in three separate towns in Maine. By Friday, the number of cases increased to 147 residents who either attended the wedding or got second-hand infections.

“One of the things we’ve learned over the past six months of working with outbreaks and COVID-19 is that no outbreak is an island,” Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah reported during a briefing.

Shah continued, ” 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.”

The virus has spread across Maine to a jail 230 miles south in Alfred because an employee from the jail attended the wedding, two nursing homes, and to Calvary Baptist Church, which is about 225 miles away in Sanford.

According to the Maine CDC spokesperson Robert Long told NBC News that the three people that have died from the didn’t even attend the wedding.

Maine has about 4,500 cases and 132 deaths from the coronavirus over the last seven months.