by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

When Machias and Washington Academy students return from winter break on Monday, Feb. 28, whether or not they wear a mask will be up to them. 

Washington Academy, located in East Machias and the county’s largest high school, Feb. 17 announced they would end their mandated masking policy the next day. In a letter to parents, WA Headmaster Judson McBrine said the removal of the mandate was a response to a “low number of COVID cases” and that the school would remove the mandate to mask, “while encouraging the option to mask” especially using KN95 masks.

“With KN95s being rated as highly effective and available, people are able to provide one-way protection,” wrote McBrine. “These masks demonstrate that a well-designed and fitted mask is better protection than universal masking with unpredictable mask efficacy.”

Both the Machias elementary and high school also announced an end to their mask mandate effective Feb. 28. Rose M. Gaffney Elementary is the county’s largest elementary school, located on the same campus as Machias Memorial High School. 

A concise announcement on the school’s Facebook page said the decision was made “due to a reduction in COVID cases and positivity rates” and that mask choice would be implemented after winter break.

Both Machias schools are members of A.O.S. 96. Fort O’Brien Elementary School in Machiasport has also announced it will return from break with optional masking, which means the eight A.O.S 96 schools will be masks optional.   

In all schools, masking will continue on buses, due to a federal rule requiring masking on all public transportation nationwide.

Data difficulties

The course of COVID-19 Downeast has become difficult to track over the past six weeks of Omicron surge, which sent most people to home testing kits, thus watering down publicly reported positive test results, and also due to a tremendous testing backlog at Maine’s labs.

For instance, Washington County’s confirmed and probable case counts for the past five weeks — 58, 88, 69, 173, and 234 for this week (Feb. 18)  — appear to show an upward trend. However, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention this week advised that a massive testing backlog would create skewed results, cloaking improved pandemic conditions. 

The Portland Press Herald today reports Maine’s positive test rates have actually plummeted by 80 percent from the state’s recent peak, in late January. According to the PPH, today the seven-day daily average of positive tests stood at 485, down from the peak of 2,486 on Jan. 22, and the state received just 244 positive tests Thursday compared to 3,400 submitted to the state on Jan. 12.

Two Downeast towns, Machias and Calais, are participating in the statewide municipal wastewater testing program. In Machias, testing conducted Feb. 2 and Feb. 3 detected COVID-19 at concentration levels greater than 74 percent and 83 percent of all quantifiable samples collected nationwide in the prior six weeks  

One week later, Machias tests conducted Feb. 9 and 10 detected COVID-19 at substantially lower levels, greater than 58 percent and 48 percent of all quantifiable samples collected nationwide in the prior six weeks.