AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Republican Gov. Paul LePage is heeding doctors’ orders and not attending a nine-day trade mission to the United Kingdom and Ireland, his office said this week.
LePage’s office said Wednesday the trade mission is still taking place to help Maine companies spur business. Administration officials, including LePage spokeswoman Julie Rabinowitz, are attending.
LePage was hospitalized Aug. 25 for “discomfort.” LePage was taken by ambulance from a hospital in New Brunswick to Presque Isle in northern Maine, and then to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where he arrived late Saturday.
Doctors decided to keep LePage overnight and released him Aug. 27. His spokesman Peter Steele said Thursday that the governor has been back at work for around a week.
The governor hasn’t provided details about the nature of his discomfort. LePage has often kept quiet about his medical issues and has previously brushed off questions about his health by saying it’s “none of your business.”
The mission’s public itinerary includes stops at the Leeds International Beer Festival in England, a “Maine and the UK” event in Parliament’s Palace of Westminster in London and the Taste of West Cork Festival in Skibbereen, Ireland.
The governor’s past trade missions include Japan, China and South America.
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