Downward trend continues as Maine reports 164 new COVID cases, four deaths

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 164 cases of the novel coronavirus and four more deaths on Saturday, as the downward trend in case numbers continued a day after state officials cleared all of them. counties in the state to attend in-person school instruction.

Maine officials on Friday cited a relatively low number of cases and the expected arrival of more doses of the vaccine by moving the 16 counties to the lower risk “green” category. The counties of Androscoggin, Franklin, Oxford and York had previously been designated “yellow”, which means that a mixture of in-person and virtual education is recommended.

The cumulative number of coronavirus cases in the state rose to 42,419 on Saturday. Of that number, 33,823 have been confirmed by testing and 8,596 are considered probable cases of COVID-19. The seven-day average of daily new cases was 195 on Saturday, up from 625.3 at its peak on January 14.

Six hundred and forty-seven people have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in Maine. The Maine CDC released widespread information on the deceased, unrelated by person: three were female and one was male; two were residents of Penobscot County, one a resident of Franklin County and one a resident of Kennebec County; and one was 70 years old, while the others were 80 years or older.

Governor Janet Mills also eased restrictions on gatherings at places of worship, which can now accommodate five people per square foot of indoor space, or 50, whichever is larger.

The more optimistic outlook last week was tempered, however, by news that a variant of COVID-19 first identified in the UK had arrived in Maine. The strain of coronavirus known as B.1.1.7 is significantly more transmissible than the version Mainers knew, but apparently no more resistant to the vaccines currently in distribution.

As of Saturday, 169,429 Mainers had received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 68,018 had received a second, according to statistics from the Maine CDC. Of Maine’s total population of 1.34 million, 12.6 percent have now received their first dose.

On Saturday morning, Mills and Dr Nirav Shah, director of the Maine CDC, visited the Northern Light Health community vaccination site at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. It is set up to vaccinate at least 1,000 people in Maine per day, Northern Light Health said.

Officials in Maine announced last week that they had purchased more than 2 million N95 respirators that were found to be potentially counterfeit. Federal officials are investigating a massive foreign-made counterfeit operation that sold fake masks to several states, including Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio and Washington.

Maine officials did not disclose how much they paid for these masks, but said they referred the case to federal authorities. About 161,000 masks have been distributed to Maine healthcare facilities, state employees and school nurses since November.

Governor Janet Mills and Dr Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, visit the Northern Light Health community vaccination site at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor on Saturday morning. Benjamin Speed ​​/ Northern Light Health

County by county in Maine since the start of the pandemic, there have been 4,593 cases of coronavirus in Androscoggin, 1,221 in Aroostook, 11934 in Cumberland, 866 in Franklin, 847 in Hancock, 3453 in Kennebec, 603 in Knox, 539 in Lincoln, 2111 in Oxford, 3,674 in Penobscot, 241 in Piscataquis, 847 in Sagadahoc, 1,205 in Somerset, 562 in Waldo, 691 in Washington and 9,032 in York.

By age, 15.1% of patients were under 20, 18% in their twenties, 14.4% in their thirties, 13.1% in their forties, 15.3% in their fifties, 11.7% in in their 60s, 6.7% in their 70s, and 5.7% were 80 or older.

Of the 100 patients with COVID-19 in hospitals in Maine on Saturday, 27 were in intensive care and nine on ventilators. The state had 113 beds in intensive care units out of a total of 393 and 244 ventilators available out of 319. There were also 446 reciprocating ventilators.

Worldwide as of late Saturday afternoon, there were more than 108.4 million known cases of COVID-19 and nearly 2.4 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had 27.5 million cases and 483,544 deaths.

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