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Maine sees new cases climb above 500 for third day in a row and another death

By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff

This story will be updated.

Another Mainers has died as health officials on Thursday reported 579 more coronavirus cases across the state.

The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 5,165. 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 4,870 on Wednesday.

It’s the third day in row when new cases climbed above 500 and the highest yet recorded since late January when Maine was still grappling with a winter surge in virus transmission.

The recent uptick in cases since late February comes despite the ramped up vaccination drive, with about 35 percent of Mainers inoculated against the virus. State data show that the ZIP codes with the highest increase in cases are in small and rural communities and not larger urban cities, a likely consequence of growing fatigue from more than a year living under gathering restrictions.

A man in his 80s from Oxford County has succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 758.

Thursday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 55,953, according to the Maine CDC. That’s up from 55,374 on Wednesday

Of those, 42,185 have been confirmed positive, while 13,768 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.

The new case rate statewide Thursday was 4.33 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide was 418.06.

Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 427.3, up from 389.7 a day ago, up from 321.1 a week ago and up from 183.1 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, 1,751 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 Thursday was 13.08 patients per 10,000 residents.

Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (6,140), Aroostook (1,531), Cumberland (15,087), Franklin (1,099), Hancock (1,177), Kennebec (4,959), Knox (884), Lincoln (741), Oxford (2,854), Penobscot (4,998), Piscataquis (407), Sagadahoc (1,136), Somerset (1,610), Waldo (763), Washington (805) and York (11,762) counties.

An additional 11,348 Mainers have been vaccinated against the coronavirus in the previous 24 hours. As of Thursday, 540,611 Mainers have received a first dose of the vaccine, while 404,575 have received a final dose.
As of Thursday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 31,422,228 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 564,405 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

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