MAINE GOVERNMENT NEWS • January 26, 2022
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services announced today more than a dozen sites throughout the state that will monitor wastewater for the virus that causes COVID-19, improving Maine’s ability to track the spread of the virus and tailor the state’s public health response in the face of the Omicron surge. Two separate but complementary screening projects are being launched across Maine. Seven sites in Maine are participating in a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention program that tests wastewater samples twice a week at up to 500 sites across the country. Sampling has already begun in Rockland and Boothbay, with the following five sites joining in the coming days: Bethel, Wilton, Bath, Yarmouth, and Guilford-Sangerville. In addition to the U.S. CDC screening project, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention has launched its own project at up to 16 municipal wastewater treatment plants throughout the state.