Paramedic Amy Dyer Drinkwater watched COVID-19 on the approach well before it gained a foothold in Maine. As the director of three ambulance services – St. George, Thomaston and South Thomaston – she had the safety of the community and staff to consider, and this particular risk was novel, not only in its pathology and virology, but in the way it skulked around, undetected.
As many knew from early on, medical personal protection equipment (PPE) — masks and gowns, face shields, even gloves and plastic booties — were in short supply. Maine, mostly rural and in the far corner of the country, had dim prospect of receiving much PPE from the national stockpile.
Photos from Wuhan and New York City, of nurses and doctors rushing among patients with their gloves, surgical masks, and thin yellow gowns, indicated what was to come for hospitals.