3 more Mainers have died and another 375 coronavirus cases reported since Saturday
By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff
Three more Mainers have died as health officials on Tuesday reported another 375 coronavirus cases across the state since the weekend.
Tuesday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 72,896, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 72,521 on Saturday.
Of those, 52,929 have been confirmed positive, while 19,967 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.
Two women and a man have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 907. Two were from York County and one from Penobscot County. Two were in their 70s and one in the 60s.
The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 2,178. 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 2,058 on Saturday.
The new case rate statewide Tuesday was 2.80 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide was 544.65.
Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 177, up from 174.7 a day ago, up from 135.7 a week ago and up from 38.9 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, 2,213 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Of those, 84 are currently hospitalized, with 45 in critical care and 20 on ventilators. That represents a nearly 80 percent increase in hospitalizations over the past week, when 47 Mainers were in the hospital with COVID-19.
The total statewide hospitalization rate on Tuesday was 16.53 patients per 10,000 residents.
Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (8,638), Aroostook (2,119), Cumberland (17,947), Franklin (1,449), Hancock (1,499), Kennebec (6,868), Knox (1,260), Lincoln (1,181), Oxford (3,792), Penobscot (6,939), Piscataquis (655), Sagadahoc (1,523), Somerset (2,438), Waldo (1,372), Washington (1,013) and York (14,203) counties.
An additional 286 vaccine doses were administered in the previous 24 hours. As of Tuesday, 781,637 Mainers have received a first dose of the vaccine, while 826,627 have received a final dose.
New Hampshire reported 561 new cases on Tuesday and no deaths. Vermont reported 61 new cases and no deaths, while Massachusetts reported 3,093 new cases and six deaths.
As of Tuesday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 36,911,727 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 622,634 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.