290 more coronavirus cases have been reported across Maine
By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff
This story will be updated.
Another 290 coronavirus cases have been reported across the state, Maine health officials said Tuesday.
The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 3,503. This is an estimation of the current number of active cases in the state, as the Maine CDC is no longer tracking recoveries for all patients. That’s up from 3,344 on Monday.
That comes a day ahead of when Maine opens vaccine eligibility to all Mainers 16 and older. With near-universal vaccine eligibility approaching, experts have said that Maine faces a critical six weeks to contain virus transmission, which has begun to again rise to levels not seen in two months when they were on a precipitous slide from January’s staggering highs above 800 a day.
No new deaths were reported Tuesday, leaving the statewide death toll at 746.
Tuesday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 52,276, according to the Maine CDC. That’s up from 51,986 on Monday.
Of those, 38,839 have been confirmed positive, while 12,437 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.
The new case rate statewide Tuesday was 2.17 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide was 390.58.
Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 291.6, up from 281.7 a day ago, up from 219.9 a week ago and up from 163.9 a month ago. That average peaked on Jan. 14 at 625.3.
The most cases have been detected in Mainers in their 20s, while Mainers over 80 years old make up the majority of deaths. More cases and deaths have been recorded in women than men.
So far, 1,705 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.
The total statewide hospitalization rate on Tuesday was 12.74 patients per 10,000 residents.
Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (5,593), Aroostook (1,441), Cumberland (14,283), Franklin (1,008), Hancock (1,100), Kennebec (4,482), Knox (824), Lincoln (682), Oxford (2,658), Penobscot (4,770), Piscataquis (393), Sagadahoc (1,027), Somerset (1,456), Waldo (729), Washington (785) and York (11,045) counties.
An additional 4,254 Mainers have been vaccinated against the coronavirus in the previous 24 hours. As of Tuesday, 463,663 Mainers have received a first dose of the vaccine, while 316,929 have received a final dose.
As of Tuesday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 30,785,734 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 555,619 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.