Record 244 new reported cases of COVID-19 in Maine and three more deaths

Maine set another daily record with 244 new COVID-19 cases reported on Friday, continuing a worrying uptrend that shows no signs of slowing down.

Three other people also died.

It was the 5th day in a row of at least 100 cases and the 10th time in the past 11 days the state has reached triple digits. The 7-day average daily cases also rose to 171 cases, the highest to date. A month ago, the 7-day average was 30 cases.

Seen through the windshield of her vehicle parked under a red tent, Haylie Morris of Freeport uses a self-administered tampon during a free COVID-19 test at the Westbrook Public Safety building on Tuesday, November 9. Staff photo by Derek Davis

There have now been a total of 8,639 cases and 162 deaths since the pandemic hit Maine in March. Over the past two weeks, there have been 16 new deaths, more than one per day. In the previous two weeks, there was none. Deaths often lag behind peak cases.

Hospitalizations have also increased rapidly. As of Friday, 13 new hospitalizations were reported but the number currently hospitalized has not yet been updated. As of Thursday, 62 people were hospitalized, including 16 in intensive care, the most since June. This time last month, only eight people were in the hospital.

Maine’s hospitalization rate, 4.6 per 100,000, remains well below the national rate of around 13, but state officials are starting to worry again about bed capacity if the going. continue to get worse.

Additional cases were reported in all counties except Aroostook and Sagadahoc on Friday, a sign that the community’s spread has taken hold in many towns and villages across the state – even in rural areas which had largely been spared by the virus.

Androscoggin County led the way with 68 new cases. Two of the three deaths were also residents of Androscoggin County. Cumberland (40), York (33) and Penobscot (27) also recorded a high number of new cases on Friday.

Health officials say the recent increase was driven more by smaller indoor gatherings where people are not always masked or out of the way, rather than the larger gatherings that defined the early days of the pandemic.

New cases also continue to dramatically exceed recoveries, pushing the number of active cases to more than 2,000 for the first time – three times what it was a month ago.

“The virus is here, it’s all around us and it’s spreading with ferocity,” Dr Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday in a briefing with reporters.

Many states have seen a steep and even record increase in cases, hospitalizations and deaths in recent weeks as the winter months approach and more people move indoors, where the risk spread of the virus is greater.

The United States set a record for the 7th time in nine days on Thursday with more than 152,000 cases. According to Johns Hopkins University, there have been more than 10.8 million cases and more than 240,000 deaths related to COVID-19 in the United States. The two are by far the most important of all countries.

This story will be updated.

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