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Lewiston first in state to close schools Thursday for Eid
School superintendent says at least 40% of the city s 5,000-plus students are from immigrant families, most of them Muslims.
By Bonnie WashukSpecial to the Sun Journal
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Hawo Abdille stands in front of the Dingley Building in Lewiston where she works as an English language learner assessment coordinator for the Lewiston School Department. She said she is thrilled that Lewiston is the first district in Maine to close schools for Eid.
Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
LEWISTON To Hawo Abdille’s delight, there’s no school Thursday in Lewiston. Thursday is Eid, and it’s a new holiday on the Lewiston public schools calendar.
Thanks to COVID-19, Eid in Lewiston will be a quieter public event
Prayer, which in non-pandemic years takes place in large gathering places like The Colisee, will instead happen at the Longley School gym, socially distanced.
By Bonnie WashukSpecial to the Sun Journal
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LEWISTON Every year Muslims gather in Lewiston for the Islamic holiday of Eid. Attended by thousands, they come together either at the armory or The Colisee for prayer.
But not this year, said Rilwan Osman, executive director of the Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services in Lewiston.
Because of the pandemic, there will be a smaller morning Eid prayer gathering at the Longley School gym.
The county also trails behind in vaccine administrations, ranking 13th among Maine’s 16 counties for first dose administrations and last in final dose administrations.
Statewide, 52.2% of all Mainers eligible to receive the vaccine have gotten at least one dose, and 40.3% are completely vaccinated. In Androscoggin County, 45.4% of those eligible had received at least one shot and just 33% had completed vaccinations as of Wednesday.
At Thursday’s media briefing, Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said there is a “concern” for why Androscoggin County’s case and positivity rates are high.
“The epidemiology here probably was related to a sizable outbreak at Bates (College), but that outbreak has largely subsided,” Shah said.
Androscoggin County still leads state in cases; Shah cites ‘focal outbreaks’
Leaders of the Lewiston immigrant community said pausing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine created a hesitancy for all vaccines.
By Bonnie WashukSpecial to the Sun Journal
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Jama Mohamed, director of Youth and Family Services for the Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services of Lewiston gets his COVID-19 vaccine at the B Street Health Center last month.
Submitted photo
LEWISTON Androscoggin County continues to lead the state with the highest per capita number of new COVID-19 cases, double that of Cumberland County, data released Tuesday showed.
Statewide cases and hospitalizations are on the rise, but Androscoggin County continues to be a hotspot.