Maine sees fewest new COVID-19 cases since September
This story will be updated.
By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff
Another 12 coronavirus cases have been reported across the state, Maine health officials said Thursday.
It’s the lowest single-day increase in new cases since Sept. 28, 2020, when 12 cases also were reported. That comes amid a steep decline in virus transmission since Maine opened up vaccine eligibility to all adults in April.
With cases falling to lows not seen in months, Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah told reporters Wednesday that his agency will cease holding weekly press conferences about the pandemic June 30, when the civil state of emergency ends.
But that also comes at a time when Shah warned that four cases of the infectious delta variant have been found. The three vaccines currently in use in Maine protect against the variant, but health officials are concerned it could spread more quickly among the unvaccinated.
The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 440. 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 493 on Wednesday.
No new deaths were reported Thursday, leaving the statewide death toll standing at 856.
Thursday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 68,889, according to the Maine CDC. That’s up from 68,877 on Wednesday.
Of those, 50,385 have been confirmed positive, while 18,504 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.
The new case rate statewide Thursday was 0.09 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide was 514.71.
Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 26.3, down from 30.4 a day ago, down from 42 a week ago and down from 166.4 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, 2,066 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 15.44 patients per 10,000 residents.
Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (8,390), Aroostook (1,897), Cumberland (17,233), Franklin (1,378), Hancock (1,374), Kennebec (6,599), Knox (1,145), Lincoln (1,078), Oxford (3,640), Penobscot (6,325), Piscataquis (586), Sagadahoc (1,473), Somerset (2,281), Waldo (1,049), Washington (941) and York (13,499) counties.
An additional 536 Mainers have been vaccinated against the coronavirus in the previous 24 hours. As of Thursday, 740,229 Mainers have received a first dose of the vaccine, while 770,894 have received a final dose.
As of Thursday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 33,577,714 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 602,837 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.