Maine’s COVID-19 hospitalizations have fallen nearly 50 percent from pandemic high

By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff

Maine’s COVID-19 hospitalizations have fallen nearly 50 percent from their pandemic high set a little over a month ago.

That comes as health officials in Maine and elsewhere have increasingly pointed to hospitalization data as a better barometer for the impact of the coronavirus. Those figures have been in free fall for several weeks, even as a backlog of positive cases have pushed Maine’s daily count to dizzying heights.

There are now 216 Mainers infected with the virus in hospitals across the state as of Monday morning, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s down from the record high of 436, set on Jan. 13.

Of those, 46 are in critical care and 21 on ventilators.

It’s the lowest since Nov. 9, when 215 Mainers were hospitalized with COVID-19. Still, despite the dramatic decline in recent weeks, more Mainers remain hospitalized now than most of last year. On Feb. 21, 2021, there were just 71 Mainers hospitalized with the virus, state data show.

It’s a sign that the situation has improved in Maine, yet remains more severe than before the delta and omicron variants stormed onto the scene in the second half of 2021.