Maine sees new coronavirus cases plunge to lowest level since fall 2020
By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff
This story will be updated.
Two more Mainers have died as health officials on Tuesday reported another 61 coronavirus cases across the state.
The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 2,686. 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 down from 2,863 on Monday.
That’s the lowest single-day increase in new cases Maine has seen since Oct. 27, when 52 were reported. It’s also the second straight day when cases slipped below the triple digits.
It comes a day after Maine marked the end of its mask mandate for fully vaccinated people, who can now toss aside the pandemic’s most visible symbol, and as Maine took the lead among New England states as the first to fully vaccinate more than half its population.
Two men in their 60s and 70s from Knox and Somerset counties have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 824.
Tuesday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 67,132, according to the Maine CDC. That’s up from 67,071 on Monday.
Of those, 49,196 have been confirmed positive, while 17,936 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.
The new case rate statewide Tuesday was 0.46 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide was 501.58.
Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 148.7, down from 166.7 a day ago, down from 239.6 a week ago and down from 362 a month ago. That average peaked on Jan. 14 at 625.3.
The most cases have been detected in Mainers younger than 20, 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, 1,984 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 14.82 patients per 10,000 residents.
Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (8,193), Aroostook (1,828), Cumberland (17,022), Franklin (1,329), Hancock (1,331), Kennebec (6,402), Knox (1,119), Lincoln (1,041), Oxford (3,534), Penobscot (6,043), Piscataquis (548), Sagadahoc (1,450), Somerset (2,166), Waldo (1,006), Washington (869) and York (13,251) counties.
An additional 2,233 Mainers have been vaccinated against the coronavirus in the previous 24 hours. As of Tuesday, 703,948 Mainers have received a first dose of the vaccine, while 677,990 have received a final dose.
As of Tuesday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 33,144,099 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 590,574 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.