Sangerville

15 more deaths reported in Maine as coronavirus cases hit record-high 830

By Lindsay Putnam, Bangor Daily News Staff

This story will be updated.

Another 15 Mainers died as health officials on Friday reported 830 more coronavirus cases across the state.

Friday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 32,781, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 31,958 on Thursday.

Of those, 26,923 have been confirmed positive, while 5,858 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.

The 15 deaths reported on Friday bring the statewide toll to 477. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.

Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 627.1, up from 622.4 a day ago, up from TK539.9 a week ago and up from 403.7 a month ago. Before this surge began in late October, Maine’s seven-day average was hovering in the 30s.

The Maine CDC continues to report widespread high levels of community transmission, defined as a case rate of 16 or more per 10,000 people, even in 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, 1,228 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. As of Thursday, 193 patients are currently hospitalized with 63 in critical care and 23 on a ventilator. 

As of Thursday, 66,487 Mainers have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, with 10,132 who have received two doses.

As of Friday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 23,314,663 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 388,705 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

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A majority of the cases — 19,064 — have been in Mainers under age 50, while more cases have been reported in women than men, according to the Maine CDC. 

As of Thursday, there have been 1,312,811 negative test results out of 1,351,830 overall. About 2.8 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 9,436 cases have been reported and where the bulk of virus deaths — 115 — have been concentrated. Other cases have been reported in Androscoggin (3,462), Aroostook (951), Franklin (545), Hancock (659), Kennebec (2,383), Knox (462), Lincoln (378), Oxford (1,485), Penobscot (3,696), Piscataquis (152), Sagadahoc (575), Somerset (907), Waldo (415), Washington (466) and York (6,973) counties. Information about where an additional 13 cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.

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