13 more Mainers die as another 535 coronavirus cases are reported across the state
By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff
This story will be updated.
Another 13 Mainers have died as health officials on Thursday reported 535 more coronavirus cases across the state.
Thursday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 27,625, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 27,090 on Wednesday.
Of those, 23,193 have been confirmed positive, while 4,432 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.
The statewide death toll stands at 385. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.
Thursday’s report marked the seventh time in the past 10 days when new cases exceeded 400 and the third time this week when they crested 500. It comes as elevated virus transmission continues its monthslong surge, bringing high levels of community transmission, which the Maine CDC defines as a case rate of 16 or more cases per 10,000 people, even to counties once largely spared the worst of the pandemic.
There are two criteria for establishing community transmission: at least 10 confirmed cases and that at least 25 percent of those are not connected to either known cases or travel.
So far, 1,135 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Information about those who are currently hospitalized wasn’t immediately available.
A majority of the cases — 16,472 — have been in Mainers under age 50, while more cases have been reported in women than men, according to the Maine CDC.
As of Wednesday, there have been 1,225,863 negative test results out of 1,259,455 overall. About 2.6 percent of all tests have come back positive, the most recently available Maine CDC data show.
The coronavirus has hit hardest in Cumberland County, where 8,140 cases have been reported and where the bulk of virus deaths — 108 — have been concentrated. Other cases have been reported in Androscoggin (3,011), Aroostook (804), Franklin (503), Hancock (608), Kennebec (2,036), Knox (399), Lincoln (334), Oxford (1,257), Penobscot (2,423), Piscataquis (136), Sagadahoc (461), Somerset (815), Waldo (392), Washington (416) and York (5,888) counties. Information about where an additional two cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.
As of Thursday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 21,307,125 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 361,312 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.