Maine

What is the criteria for facilities appearing on the outbreak facilities sheet?

It requires three confirmed cases to meet the outbreak definition, and we preliminarily close it 14 days after the last symptom onset or positive test (whichever is later) and the outbreak is officially closed 28 days after.

[This is a follow-up to a previous question.] Do you know why Maine was asked to discontinue submitting aggregate data to the federal CDC?

_I don’t know specifically why but I think it was because the aggregate data was not specific enough. It didn’t break the results down by test type. And they had developed the CELR process by then so they were working to convert everyone over to the other process.  _ _ _ We should be fully caught up with CELR data by the end of the week. As of yesterday we had sent all the back data through November, hopefully we can get through March by the end of this week.

[This is a follow up to a previous question.] We previously heard that ME is having trouble with reporting testing data to the CELR program. What were the technical problems you were having? For other states with technical problems submitting to CELR, the CDC has instead used aggregate data submitted by the state to capture testing volume. Has CDC given ME this option? Are labs required by state order to submit both positive and negative test results to Maine?

The issues we have had with reporting CELR data is ensuring the accuracy of the data. The data are deidentified when sent to federal CDC so all deduplication has to happen prior to sending the data. Because Maine is a dual reporting state, we wanted to ensure the deduplication was working appropriately or the data would look like Maine is doing far more testing than we actually do.    We did previously submit aggregate data to federal CDC to capture testing volume, but we were told to discontinue. We are sending test CELR files today and hope to be live in the next week or two.     If a laboratory can report electronically (which is required by Maine Statute) the lab reports both positive and negative results. If they are a manual reporter, we ask that they only report positive result until they can go live with electronic reporting. The vast majority of results are reported electronically now.

We are wrapping up data compilation on March 7, 2021. As we close the book on our data compilation, we'd like to make sure as much of your data is included as possible. We have one remaining problem that, if it were solved, would get us to cleaner data for Maine in our soon-to-be-historical dataset: We'd like to use Maine's historical testing data, provided in your daily lab results graph (accessible here: https://analytics.maine.gov/t/CDCExternal/views/covid-19-maine-cdc-dashboard/7_DailyLabResults?:isGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y&:embed=y), to replace the testing figures we've used in Maine, which have some inconsistencies. This will make Maine's historical data more sound in our archives and give us a few more months of solid testing history data.

However, we've encountered a problem as we've attempted this replacement: We noticed that, as of March 3 2021, the sum of the daily timeseries is 1,622,215, which is 31,528 lower than the cumulative total for molecular testing we collect from the table of all reported COVID-19 tests in Maine you provide on your page, which is 1,653,743 (from here: https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/infectious-disease/epi/airborne/coronavirus/data.shtml).

We would like to use the timeseries ME provides in that graph to replace our total tests figures, but to evaluate whether we could do that, we would like to understand why this difference is there. Would you be able to shed any light on it?

ME’s graph is different because the number is residents only whereas the table includes non residents. They are not sure why and would need to ask to change it to be both residents and non residents. They can pull a one time file for us with both residents and non residents numbers.

Currently, the HHS does not use data directly provided by Maine in its PCR testing dataset (accessible here: https://healthdata.gov/dataset/covid-19-diagnostic-laboratory-testing-pcr-testing-time-series), as it does for most jurisdictions. Instead, it uses data submitted directly by laboratories in ME, which is very incomplete data—about 36% lower than Maine's total tests on its dashboard at the topline (image attached).

Does ME submit any COVID-19 testing data to the federal government, either in aggregate or the line level? If so, do you know why the CDC does not use ME’s data? If not, why doesn’t Maine submit data to the federal government?

Maine has sent data to U.S. CDC but there have been significant technical problems with that transmission. Our team is working with U.S. CDC to address those problems. It’s a matter of making the systems talk to each other in a consistently productive way.

Maine has two dates on it's race data on the race data tab. For example - today - it says "Cases updated through: February 13, 2021 11:59 pm Other metrics updated weekly. Updated through: February 6, 2021”. And in the downloaded data files using the data option at the bottom of the tableau frame - their is a metrics date column that has February 6. 2021 for each Race. Does this mean that all race demographics are from Feb. 6? What does the Feb. 13 date refer to - Total Case, Confirmed and Probable case counts only?

On Wednesday, 11/4, Maine reported one case in the "null" category for race. This is a new category we haven't seen before. Should we expect cases to continue to be logged in this category, or will the "null" case be reclassified? https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/infectious-disease/epi/airborne/coronavirus/data.shtml

That “null” designation was an IT aberration that has been resolved.

We are currently interpreting Total Molecular Testing as referring to the total number of tests conducted. Is this correct? If so, do you have plans to release the total number of individuals tested? Do you have plans to release a full historical time-series of all testing and results? We have been capturing the total test results in Total Molecular Testing since 5/13/20. Do you plan to release a historical time series of that number? Will this historical data set be available consistently and in a machine readable format like (i.e. csv or json)?

The testing data that are updated daily on our webpage reflect the number of tests reported to us, broken down by antibody and molecular. Antigen tests are included in the molecular category. As time and resources allow, we can consider some of the other data presentations you list below.

Are they conducting antigen testing? Are these testing results reported on the state site? How many tests have they conducted?

Information on all tests reported to Maine CDC is reported here: https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/infectious-disease/epi/airborne/coronavirus/data.shtml

Are they performing pool testing?

We are not yet doing pool testing.

When will ME begin reporting race and ethnicity for deaths?

We are regularly reviewing the dashboards. The number of deaths and people who identify as Asian or Pacific Islander remains at a level to cause concerns about making personally identifying information public.