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Eight counties in Maine are now experiencing coronavirus transmission high enough for the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend universal indoor masks, according to data released by the agency on Wednesday.
Masks are now recommended indoors in Cumberland, Kennebec and Piscataquis counties. Five counties were the subject of masking recommendations on Tuesday – Penobscot, Waldo, York, Somerset and Lincoln – and maintained transmission rates high enough to keep them in place.
The US Centers for Disease Control recommends that people wear masks indoors, regardless of their immunization status, if there is significant transmission of the virus in their community, defined as 50 or more cases per 100 000 people at the county level.
Seven of Maine’s eight counties – all except Waldo – are just above the threshold, according to a Bangor Daily News analysis of data from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, with more than 50 but less than 70 new cases per 100,000 people per week.
Waldo County reported the highest rate of new cases on Tuesday, after 29 new cases were reported there. The county, with a population of just under 40,000, recorded 146 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past week, with cases increasing due to community transmission.
As the data changes day by day, the number of counties that fall under the recommendations of the US CDC changes daily.
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