According to a report from the Bangor Daily News, the city of Houlton, Maine, and its contract towns will continue to provide emergency services despite four of the town’s six full-time paramedic and emergency medical technicians tested positive for COVID-19.
Houlton Fire Department (HFD) Chief Milton Cone, who also acts as Houlton’s ambulance director, said the entire ambulance and fire department staff has been tested because the two departments share common areas inside the public safety building. Cone also said that one full-time HFD firefighter had also tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, and is isolating at home.
Shawn Anderson, CEO of Houlton Regional Hospital (HRH), said Monday afternoon that two additional positive tests connected with the original incident have been reported, bringing the total to nine cases. One of the two new cases is a HRH staff member.
On June 13, a Houlton Ambulance Service crew transported a patient to HRH for non-COVID-19 reasons. On June 14, the same patient was taken from the hospital by a different Houlton ambulance team to Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center for surgery. The patient, who did not display any symptoms, then tested positive for COVID-19 once at the Bangor hospital. The two ambulance teams, four workers in all, who transported the patient also tested positive. At least two other individuals with close contact to the teams or the patient have tested positive, the report said.
