YARMOUTH, Maine (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic has forced the cancellation of Maine’s annual celebration of clams for the second straight year.
The Yarmouth Clam Festival dates to the 1960s and is a beloved tradition in the southern Maine town. It’s a celebration of seafood and summer that typically includes races, rides, music, a shucking contest and all things bivalve.
Organizers of the festival said Tuesday they met with town officials and others and decided the safe approach was to cancel the event. The pandemic also scuttled last year’s clam festival.
The organizers of the event said in a Facebook post that they were concerned about the “ability to facilitate an event within unknown state regulations.” They also said “that with the love and support of our many fans we will return bigger and better when the time is right.”
The most recent Yarmouth Clam Festival took place in July 2019.
In other pandemic news in Maine:
THE NUMBERS
The positivity rate in Maine is continuing a downward trend.
The latest average positivity rate in Maine is 1.67%. State health departments are calculating positivity rate differently across the country, but for Maine the AP calculates the rate by dividing new cases by test specimens using data from The COVID Tracking Project.
The seven-day rolling average of the positivity rate in Maine did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 2.9% on Feb. 3 to 1.67% on Feb. 17.
Maine health authorities have reported more than 43,000 positive cases of the virus and 655 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
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RESOLUTION REJECTED
The Androscoggin County Commission has turned down a resolution proposed by a commissioner who opposes mask mandates.
Commissioner Isaiah Lary, a Republican, proposed the resolution to refuse statewide mask orders applied by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills. In the end, only Lary voted for the resolution, which failed 6-1 on Wednesday.
Lary believes that Mills executive order is unconstitutional, the Sun Journal reported.
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RELIGIOUS GATHERINGS
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland said Thursday that changes to the state rules about religious gatherings won’t change much for Maine’s Catholics.
“This ruling is unacceptable and does nothing to provide relief to our parishes and parishioners,” Bishop Robert Deeley said.
Mills issued an executive order on Feb. 12 that said houses of worship can accommodate five people per 1,000 square feet of space, or up to 50 people, whichever is greater. The number of people who could gather in houses of worship had previously been capped at 50.
The diocese said in a statement that less then 10 of Maine’s 141 Catholic churches will see an increase from current capacity levels.
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