Maine sees largest single-day increase in coronavirus infections
By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff
This story will be updated.
Another 867 coronavirus cases have been reported across the state, Maine health officials said Wednesday.
That comes a day after the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,008 infections that happened across Maine between Saturday and Sunday. The previous single-day record for virus cases was 834 on Jan. 14.
Wednesday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 89,064, according to the Maine CDC That’s up from 88,197 on Tuesday.
Of those, 63,611 have been confirmed positive, while 25,453 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.
No new deaths were reported Wednesday, leaving the statewide death toll standing at 1,022.
The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 7,020. 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 7,020 on Tuesday.
The new case rate statewide Wednesday was 6.48 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide was 665.45.
Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 559.4, up from 522 the day before, up from 457.6 a week ago and up from 245.3 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, 2,425 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 18.49 patients per 10,000 residents.
Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (9,640), Aroostook (3,249), Cumberland (20,002), Franklin (1,838), Hancock (2,186), Kennebec (8,356), Knox (1,618), Lincoln (1,567), Oxford (4,388), Penobscot (10,249), Piscataquis (1,079), Sagadahoc (1,727), Somerset (3,509), Waldo (2,063), Washington (1,415) and York (16,175) counties. Information about where an additional three cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.
An additional 1,845 vaccine doses were administered in the previous 24 hours. As of Wednesday, 871,423 Mainers are fully vaccinated, or about 73.6 percent of eligible Mainers, according to the Maine CDC.
As of Wednesday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 43,232,152 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 693,069 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.