2 Mainers die as Maine sees highest number of new cases since January

By Rosemary Lausier, Bangor Daily News Staff

This story will be updated. 

Another two Mainers have died as health officials on Friday reported 438 more coronavirus cases across the state.

The statewide death toll now stands at 750.

It’s the highest number of new cases reported since Jan. 27, when the number of new cases reached 462. 

Friday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 53,434, according to the Maine CDC. That’s up from 52,996 on Thursday. 

Of those, 40,547 have been confirmed positive, while 12,887 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.

The most cases have been detected in Mainers in their 20s, 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, 1,722 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Information about the hospitalizations was not immediately available on Friday.  

Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (5,767), Aroostook (1,461), Cumberland (14,567), Franklin (1,038), Hancock (1,120), Kennebec (4,628), Knox (843), Lincoln (699), Oxford (2,708), Penobscot (4,828), Piscataquis (397), Sagadahoc (1,060), Somerset (1,505), Waldo (737), Washington (791) and York (11,284) counties. 

As of Friday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 31,003,070 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 560,115 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.