Augusta- Today Maine Department of Education, in partnership with Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services and Center for Disease Control and Prevention, released a dashboard of reported school related cases of COVID-19 for the past 30 days. This new dashboard will incorporate the previously available information on outbreak status. Beginning today, the Department of Education will update the dashboard weekly with reported cases over the past 30 days, by school. Schools for whom an outbreak has been determined will be noted in the dashboard with an orange bar. Schools are listed in the table alphabetically, and the corresponding SAU is included.

The data included in the table reflect cases reported by Maine schools through a case reporting form for school related cases, including staff and students. This is similar to the method used during the 2020-2021 school year. Not all cases submitted by Maine schools have been confirmed by Maine CDC. An outbreak investigation is opened by Maine CDC after detecting three or more epidemiologically linked, confirmed cases among different households during a 14-day period. An outbreak investigation is closed when there has not been a new case associated with the school for 14 days (one incubation period).Community-based transmission continues to drive case rates in schools.

Vaccination remains the best strategy for reducing the transmission of COVID-19. Those who are eligible are urged to get vaccinated to help students learn safely and in-person. Vaccination information and locations can be found on Maine CDC’s Vaccination website.