Downward trend continues with 147 new cases of COVID-19 in Maine, 2 deaths

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday reported 147 new cases of COVID-19 and two more deaths after a winter storm delayed vaccine shipments but not vaccine distribution to clinics in Maine.

Cumulative COVID-19 cases in Maine rose to 43,367 on Saturday. Of these, 34,431 have been confirmed by testing and 8,936 are considered probable cases of COVID-19.

Six hundred and fifty-eight people have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in Maine. The Maine CDC has released information on the two people who are believed to have died without correlating their age, gender and county of residence; they were a man and a woman from Oxford County and Waldo County, one in their sixties and one in their sixties.

The seven-day average of new daily cases fell to 138.4, well below its high of 625.3 in mid-January and well below last weekend’s average, which hovered around 190. Another sign that conditions are improving, the seven-day average positivity rate – the percentage of COVID-19 tests that returned positive – has dropped to 1.2%, according to a tweet from Dr Nirav Shah, director of the Maine CDC.

A low positivity rate is a good sign because it means that most cases are detected, giving public health officials a better chance to use quarantine and isolation strategies to fight the virus. The 1.2 percent is less than half the positivity rate of 2.7 percent two weeks ago, far from the peak of around 6 percent in late December and early January.

In summer and early fall, positivity rates in Maine were usually less than 1 percent, often closer to 0.5 percent.

But unlike last summer, there is now a vaccination program to help reduce transmission of the virus.

Widespread winter weather has delayed the delivery of about 6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, the White House said last week. However, the delay was spread across all 50 states, and Maine officials said on Friday they had been prepared.

Anticipating a winter storm, Maine CDC officials arranged to ship doses of vaccine last Monday, before snow and freezing rain hit the roads, according to spokesman Robert Long. Only a small number of doses were delayed as a result, Long said.

As of Saturday morning, 196,581 Mainers had received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 90,749 had received the second. Of Maine’s population of 1.3 million, 14.62 percent received their first dose, according to statistics from the Maine CDC.

The Biden administration is expected to speed up vaccine dose shipments to states in the coming weeks, with some experts predicting a doubling of weekly doses by the end of March. For the week of February 22, Maine is expected to receive 27,740 doses, a 14% increase from the previous week. Additionally, a federally run retail pharmacy program could double the 4,300 weekly doses and add another retail pharmacy partner next week. Currently, Walmart and Sam’s Club pharmacies in Maine allow people aged 70 and over to schedule immunization appointments.

Northern Light Health announced Thursday that a mass vaccination site at Portland Expo – also currently scheduled for the 70 and over age group – is scheduled to open on March 2 and will operate on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Sagadahoc County leads Maine with most vaccinations per capita, with 17.53 percent of residents receiving a first dose. Just behind is Cumberland County at 17.25% and Aroostook County at 15.99%.

Somerset County is behind the pack, with just 9.5 percent having received their first dose.

County by county on Saturday, there had been 4,684 cases of coronavirus in Androscoggin, 1254 in Aroostook, 12197 in Cumberland, 880 in Franklin, 871 in Hancock, 3537 in Kennebec, 620 in Knox, 563 in Lincoln, 2152 in Oxford, 3759 in Penobscot, 244 in Piscataquis, 865 in Sagadahoc, 1229 in Somerset, 572 in Waldo, 698 in Washington and 9240 in York.

By age, 15.2% of patients were under 20, 18.1% in their twenties, 14.4% in their thirties, 13.1% in their forties, 15.3% in their fifties, 11.7 % in their 60s, 6.6% in their 70s, and 5.6% were 80 years or older.

Of the 75 patients with COVID-19 in hospitals in Maine on Saturday, 24 were in intensive care and six on ventilators. The state had 108 beds in intensive care units out of a total of 390 and 253 ventilators available out of 319. There were also 446 reciprocating ventilators.

Globally on Saturday night, there were 110.9 million known cases of COVID-19 and more than 2.4 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had 28 million cases and 497,345 deaths.

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