Virus concerns delay legal pot, can clam festival in Maine

Maine officials decided Friday to delay the rollout of legalized marijuana in the state due to concerns about the spread of coronavirus.

Voters in Maine chose to legalize marijuana for recreational adult use in 2016, and the Maine Office of Marijuana Policy hoped to debut retail sales this spring. The office’s director, Erik Gundersen, said Friday that a spring launch is “simply unrealistic.”

One reason for the postponement is communities have had to delay authorization to opt-in to allowing local marijuana businesses, Gundersen said. The office said a new timetable for the launch of legal marijuana won’t be available until after public health experts have provided guidance about when it would be safe.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.

In Maine, more than 580 people have been infected with the virus, and 17 people had died as of Friday.

The Yarmouth Clam Festival, a popular summer street festival, has also been canceled.

—-

“SUPER SPREADER” IDENTIFIED

A traveling salesperson helped spread the coronavirus in Maine and several other states early in the outbreak last month, the leader of the Maine Center for Disease Control said.

The salesperson was a so-called “super spreader,” a single person responsible for a significant number of exposures to the virus, Dr. Nirav Shah said, the center’s director, said Thursday.

“This traveling salesperson visited a particular establishment in Maine and had a series of meetings and infected a certain number of individuals, all of whom we traced,” Shah said.

The person was linked to infections outside Maine, as well, Shah said. He declined to release details, citing privacy concerns.

The discovery highlights how the spread of the coronavirus can often be traced to individuals and gatherings.

One of the concerns is that the virus can be easily spread by infected people who are not showing symptoms.

——

COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION

Shah said there’s evidence of community transmission of the virus in Penobscot County, where Bangor is located. Penobscot joins York and Cumberland counties in showing evidence of community spread.

___

SMALL BUSINESSES

More than 5,000 small businesses in Maine are approved for more than $1 billion in forgivable loans under the Paycheck Protection Program, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said.

“This more than $1 billion in urgently needed relief is great news for our state, and it will help thousands of Maine small employers continue to pay their employees and keep from closing their doors,” the Maine Republican said in a statement.

Paycheck Protection Program loans were created by the Keeping American Workers Paid and Employed Act to help small employers continue to pay their workers for an eight-week period during the pandemic.

Dozens of Maine lending institutions are participating in the program. The bill was authored by Collins along with Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, Ben Cardin, D-Maryland, and Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire.