HOULTON, Maine — The four emergency medical technician workers infected with COVID-19 in Houlton the weekend of June 21 have officially recovered and ready to resume ambulance duties.
The four EMT workers, alongside one member the Houlton Fire Department (which shares a building with the ambulance service) had contracted the virus as part of an outbreak which saw at least nine cases appearing in the Houlton area. That figure was nearly double the total numbers of cases appearing in The County up to that point.
The EMT workers were cleared by the Maine Center for Disease Control on June 29, with the firefighter cleared June 30, according to Houlton Ambulance Director and Fire Chief Milton Cone. They are all now back to work in providing their usual ambulance services for the town of Houlton as well as surrounding towns they have contracted services with.
Cone said that all precautions were being taken to ensure that workers and ambulance workers were protected from the virus.
“[We’re] being diligent with the social distancing, the wearing of masks, the washing of hands,” Cone said. “We’re periodically disinfecting the ambulances and the fire station. Just making sure they’re adhering to the guidelines and just being very, very cautious.”
Cone also stated the Maine CDC was still investigating the cause of the outbreak, and trying to trace how it arrived in Houlton, as well as how it managed to spread to the EMT workers.
“We have not heard anything as far as where it originated or how it went from one individual to another,” Cone said.
The Houlton Ambulance Service, in addition to Houlton, also provides services to the towns of Amity, Cary, Dyer Brook, Hammond, Hodgdon, Linneus, Littleton, Ludlown, Merrill, Monticello, New Limerick, Oakfield and Smyrna.
