COVID-19 moves in next door

Maine, where I live, is one of the states least affected by the coronavirus. Here, about one out of every 313 people in the state has been touched by the virus. And my county is even safer with one case recorded for every 990 people. 

So you can imagine how surprised I was to learn that a case arrived next door. Arrived is the correct word, because it came from away. It was the middle-aged son or our neighbor whom I see in my imagination arriving home saying, "Mom, I'm sick." It turns out that the gentleman lives in a far away state and seems to have caught the bug at a wedding. Weren't we all warned about that?
I don't know where the wedding was held, but here's a story from Millinocket, Maine, the gateway to Mount Katahdan and the terminus of the Appalachian Trail. They had a wedding reception there with 65 people gathered in a church with reception to follow. 26 folk tested positive with 6 more probables. About half the people caught COVID-19 at the wedding. What a way to honeymoon. (State rules say no more than 50 for an indoor assembly.) Well, some people just have to party come hell, high-water or the coronavirus. And they may just spread it to the rest of us. 

We're not going to be spending much time with our neighbor until the all clear sounds. Until now, we were content to visit with masks and social distancing. Now, visits are out. It is a microcosm of the profound effects that the coronavirus is having on our socio-cultural relations. Theres a new normal, but for some the old normal remains the new normal. Many of us take the threat seriously and do everything we can to prevent the spread of the disease, for we know it can  leave us with permanent impairments or kill us. This is war and in wartime we have to change our behavior to meet the challenge. We know where the enemy lurks and it's tactics. It's war!

Update from The Maine Monitor: A woman died on Friday (8/21) after contracting COVID-19 from a person who attended a wedding reception in Millinocket that has been tied to 32 known cases.

Update from Maine Monitor (8/29): The wedding outbreak has directly or indirectly infected 123 people and caused one death, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Update from Boston Globe (9/4): Two coronavirus deaths, 144 cases now linked to Aug. 7 wedding in Millinocket, Maine