7 more Mainers have died and another 778 coronavirus cases reported across the state
By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff
This story will be updated.
Seven more Mainers have died as health officials on Wednesday reported another 778 coronavirus cases across the state.
Wednesday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 81,955, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 81,177 on Tuesday.
Of those, 58,712 have been confirmed positive, while 23,242 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.
Two people from Hancock, one from Kennebec, one from Knox, two from Penobscot and one from Waldo counties have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 976.
The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 5,66. 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 5,321 on Tuesday.
The new case rate statewide Wednesday was 5.81 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide was 612.33.
Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 450.6, up from 444.1 the day before, up from 359 a week ago and up from 173.7 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, 2,388 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 Wednesday was 17.84 patients per 10,000 residents.
Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (9,168), Aroostook (2,853), Cumberland (19,214), Franklin (1,626), Hancock (1,872), Kennebec (7,707), Knox (1,472), Lincoln (1,354), Oxford (4,047), Penobscot (8,708), Piscataquis (873), Sagadahoc (1,634), Somerset (2,924), Waldo (1,865), Washington (1,177) and York (15,454) counties. Information about where an additional seven cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.
An additional 956 vaccine doses were administered in the previous 24 hours. As of Wednesday, 863,574 Mainers are fully vaccinated, or about 72.9 percent of eligible Mainers, according to the Maine CDC.
As of Wednesday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 41,367,771 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 663,963 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.