Like their peers across the state amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, SAD 41 students have been receiving classroom instruction remotely for the last month and a half and will continue with this method through the remainder of the 2019-20 academic year. Teachers and administrators have been adjusting along the way with the changes being incorporated into what is now known as an emergency learning plan. The approval and name change was formally OKed by the school board during an April 29 meeting conducted via Zoom.

Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage teased a run against his successor in the strongest terms yet so far on Wednesday, telling a radio host he will return to Maine from Florida and “challenge Janet Mills or the Democratic Party in 2022.”

In addition to Poland Spring, contributors to the fund include Experience Maine and Bissell Brothers Brewing which has a location in the founders’ hometown of Milo. The latter two companies are selling Maine-made products, a portion of the proceeds of which will be donated to the fund. Links to these products can be found on the Maine Tourism Relief Fund website. 

As health care systems in coronavirus hot spots are stretched thin, Maine hospitals and the state prepared for a much larger onslaught of coronavirus cases than the one that has materialized so far here.

Certain Maine businesses can reopen on Friday as part of a gradual plan to lift coronavirus-related restrictions, though many hospitality businesses could remain closed deep into the summer, Gov. Janet Mills said Tuesday.

Self-employed workers and independent contractors will be able to apply for federally funded unemployment benefits starting on Friday, the Maine Department of Labor announced on Tuesday.

Gov. Janet Mills suggested on Monday that she might reduce restrictions on businesses when a stay-at-home order expires at the end of April, but she told Mainers to “stay the course” on public health measures aimed at slowing the coronavirus.

While Mayo had established historical relationships with some system members, like Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center, the close of the merger opened up vast new resources, Vienneau says. Leaders at Mayo are now included in daily COVID-19 incident command meetings, where they can tap the expertise of the system’s healthcare professionals all over Maine. In addition, subgroups focused on clinical and support areas including infection control, facilities management, pharmacy services and many others are meeting as needed during the week. 

More than 400,000 Maine residents have already received economic impact payments from the federal government, according to data released jointly by the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service on Friday.

Maine will take a gradual approach to lifting restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus, but things “will not return to normal soon,” Gov. Janet Mills said Thursday.

A widely used model that projects the path of the coronavirus outbreak in each state estimates that Maine could start relaxing its social distancing rules by May 13. But that prediction includes a number of conditions that have yet to be met.

Many Maine hospitals have more critical care beds and ventilators available right now than before the coronavirus pandemic began, positioning medical providers to be able to handle an increase in critically ill patients if a surge occurs, a top hospital administrator said Wednesday.

Similarly, the Ridge View Community School that runs a school pantry program in Dexter has gone from serving 40-50 families a week to 110 and the nearby Dover-Foxcroft Area Food Cupboard has gone from serving 85 households to 140, plus an additional 10 deliveries to home-bound community members.

Whom do you and other members of your group believe deserves to be your community’s 2020 Spirit of America Foundation Tribute honoree for their help to your organization and/or other causes?

The lack of a vaccine to combat COVID-19 has left the battle against the pandemic to more direct human approaches -- the most common of which is social distancing. But one Piscataquis County company is helping to fight that battle in situations where the six-foot separation between people isn’t possible. JSI Store Fixtures in Milo has been among the nation’s leaders in producing transparent hygiene barriers that perhaps are best recognized as those plexiglass shields that have popped up at local grocery stores to separate the customers from the cashier.

Piscataquis County may not be at the epicenter of Maine’s battle against the COVID-19  pandemic -- as of Sunday there is only one positive test among its 16,800 residents. That’s not to say the impact of the coronavirus stops at the county line, including the food insecurity that comes with rapidly expanding unemployment around the state.

All 16 of the state’s counties have confirmed cases with the first case confirmed in Piscataquis County on Sunday. It was last Maine county to report a case.

Gov. Janet Mills said on Friday that her administration was devising a plan to gradually reopen Maine’s economy, though she reiterated that stopping the spread of the novel coronavirus in Maine was the key to allowing business activities to resume.