MILLINOCKET, Maine — An August 7 wedding and reception in the Millinocket area has been all the talk around Maine for the wrong reasons.
On Wednesday, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced there are now 85 cases of COIVD-19 associated with an outbreak that was sparked at the wedding.
Outbreaks at the Maplecrest Rehabilitation and Living Center in Madison and the York County Jail are connected to the Millinocket area wedding.
During Tuesday's CDC briefing Dr. Nirav Shah and Governor Janet Mills announced the one death associated with this outbreak was a woman who was not in attendance at the wedding.
An employee at the jail was in attendance at the wedding, helping the virus spread across the state.
After nearly three weeks since the event, business owners and school officials are seeing a change in and around the Millinocket community.
Clint Linscott has owned Linscott Auto Body for more than 40 years in East Millinocket. When you're rooted in one community for four decades, you know people.
Linscott said he's noticed many local residents change their ways after the outbreak became public.
“The community had been pretty relaxed, people have been kind of keeping their distance, kind of wearing the mask," Linscott mentioned how people acted before the outbreak. " (Since then) people paid more attention to the mask, paid more attention to the six feet.”
Across the street from his garage is a test site at a Millinocket Regional Hospital Walk-In Center. Linscott added the testing site was packed with cars the days after the COVID-19 cases were reported in the area.
The outbreak is now catching the attention of local school systems. The Millinocket school board met Tuesday night and voted to push back the start date of school From Sept. 8 to Sept. 14.
The schools will still meet in-person for four days a week, Friday's will be virtual learning for all students.
“That gives us 20 days between now and then so we will measure what the effects are," Millinocket school district superintendent Frank Boynton said. "We’re overloaded with masks and sanitation equipment.”
Because of the lack of cases over the last few months in the area, Boynton wasn't surprised that there was an outbreak but he was concerned for the older citizens in town, his students, and staff.
Since he added he's seen more people in the community take this virus seriously.
“I went to lunch this afternoon and saw more masks on Main street than I’ve seen in a while," Boynton said.
Michelle Purcell is an Advanced EMT with the East Millinocket Fire Department.
Since the outbreak, she's also noticed more people wearing masks and staying socially distant.
“People are more conscientious, people are realizing this is something they need to pay attention to. They’re realizing it’s not just a foreign disease, it’s in our backyard," Purcell added.
As more cases are associated with the outbreak some people in the area are realizing COVID-19 is real and is here.