Maine sees lowest single-day increase in COVID-19 infections since late August
This story will be updated.
By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff
Nine more Mainers have died as health officials on Wednesday reported another 300 coronavirus cases across the state.
That was the lowest single-day increase since Aug. 27, when only 267 cases were reported across the state.
Wednesday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 92,665, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 92,365 on Tuesday.
Of those, 66,115 have been confirmed positive, while 26,550 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.
Three people from Aroostook County, one from Cumberland County, one from Franklin County, three from Penobscot County and one from Piscataquis County have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 1,045.
Of those, eight were women and one was a man. Four were in their 80s or older, two in their 70s, two in their 60s and one in the 50s.
The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 7,509. 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 7,823 on Tuesday.
The new case rate statewide Wednesday was 2.24 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide was 692.35.
Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 515.3, down from 597.3 the day before, down from 558.9 a week ago and up from 383 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 have been recorded in women and more deaths in men.
So far, 2,542 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 18.99 patients per 10,000 residents.
Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (9,879), Aroostook (3,419), Cumberland (20,496), Franklin (1,918), Hancock (2,421), Kennebec (8,781), Knox (1,688), Lincoln (1,633), Oxford (4,554), Penobscot (10,850), Piscataquis (1,180), Sagadahoc (1,804), Somerset (3,693), Waldo (2,126), Washington (1,531) and York (16,686) counties. Information about where an additional six cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.
An additional 105 vaccine doses were administered in the previous 24 hours. As of Wednesday, 880,779 Mainers are fully vaccinated, or about 74.4 percent of eligible Mainers, according to the Maine CDC.
As of Wednesday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 43,952,140 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 705,326 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.