Hospitalizations Rise Amid Steady Rise in COVID-19 in Maine

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday reported 587 more cases of COVID-19 and one additional death, adding to an already heavy burden on hospitals in Maine, which are near their highest number of coronavirus patients since start of the pandemic.

State hospitals had 204 COVID-19 patients on Saturday, up from 201 on Friday and closer to the peak of 207 recorded in January. Seventy-seven of Saturday’s patients were in intensive care and 33 were breathing with the help of ventilators. The number of intensive care patients, 34, was the highest since the start of the pandemic on Friday – “a disheartening record that none of us want to set,” said Dr Nirav Shah, director of the CDC of Maine, on Twitter.

Cumulative COVID-19 cases in Maine rose to 83,909 on Saturday. Of these, 60,042 have been confirmed by testing and 23,867 are considered probable cases of COVID-19. The new data brought the seven-day average for new cases to 485.6 and the 14-day average to 417.

Nine hundred and eighty-two people have died from COVID-19 in Maine since the start of the pandemic. Information on the person who died on Saturday was not available from the Maine CDC.

As of Saturday morning, Maine had given 869,234 people the last dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Of those 12 years of age and older, the population currently eligible for vaccination, 73.40 percent are now fully vaccinated.

Most current COVID-19 hospital patients are unvaccinated – between 70 and 75 percent, according to hospital administrators. The proportion of unvaccinated people in intensive care is even higher.

The high number of cases has overwhelmed Maine CDC staff, forcing them to report cases as quickly as they can confirm them. As a result, some daily counts include cases identified in previous days.

Schools were not spared by the viral wave. As of Thursday, 1,390 cases were active in Maine schools, including 52 separate outbreaks, according to a new online dashboard from the Maine Department of Education.

As of Friday, Maine had recorded 2,449 “breakthrough” cases, which occur when a fully vaccinated person contracts COVID-19. Unvaccinated people still make up the vast majority of cases and are also much more likely to have more severe cases if they catch the disease. By comparison, there have been a total of 48,110 cases since COVID-19 vaccines became available to Mainers.

All counties in Maine except Sagadahoc were in the Maine CDC’s “high” COVID-19 transmission range on Saturday. The public health agency recommends wearing masks indoors for all people in areas with “substantial” or higher transmission.

County by county on Saturday, there had been 9,286 coronavirus cases in Androscoggin, 2,941 in Aroostook, 19,448 in Cumberland, 1,719 in Franklin, 1,934 in Hancock, 7,855 in Kennebec, 1,488 in Knox, 1,409 in Lincoln, 4,116 in Oxford, 9,248 in Penobscot, 929 in Piscataquis, 1,649 in Sagadahoc, 3,105 in Somerset, 1,897 in Waldo, 1,229 in Washington and 15,630 in York.

By age, 20 percent of patients were under 20, while 18.2 percent were in their twenties, 15.3 percent in their thirties, 13.2 percent in their forties, 14 percent in their fifties , 10 percent in their 60s, 5.3 percent were in their 70s, and 4.1 percent were 80 or older.

Worldwide as of late Saturday afternoon, there were 227.9 million known cases of COVID-19 and 4.68 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had 42 million cases and 673,270 deaths.

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