Maine CDC Reports 217 New Cases of COVID-19, Increase in Hospitalizations

State health officials on Wednesday reported 217 new cases of COVID-19, but no additional deaths.

The number of cases is again rising steadily in Maine after a lull in early summer that raised hopes that the state and much of the rest of the nation were emerging from the pandemic. Over the past seven days, Maine has recorded an average of 149 new cases per day, compared to an average of just 18 cases for the week ending July 7.

The steady increase in the number of cases has started to lead to more hospitalizations, which typically delay the increase in cases by two to three weeks. As of Wednesday, there were 60 inpatients with COVID-19 in hospitals in Maine, including 28 people in intensive care beds, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The last time 60 or more people were hospitalized for the disease was on June 6.

To date, the Maine CDC has reported 71,883 confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 as well as 901 deaths related to the viral illness. The vast majority of these cases and deaths occurred between fall 2020 and spring 2021 before vaccines became widely available in the United States. Maine continues to have one of the lowest infection and death rates in the country.

But this latest spike in cases – likely due to the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus – is concerning as around 39% of the state’s population of 1.3 million remain unvaccinated. About 160,000 of these unvaccinated people are children under the age of 12 who are still too young to be vaccinated under current federal authorizations.

Maine is also experiencing an increase in epidemics, including in hospitals and assisted living or long-term care facilities. On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Gov. Janet Mills said the administration “is seriously considering” requiring all health workers in the state to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Maine’s two largest healthcare providers, MaineHealth and Northern Light Health, have announced plans to require all staff to be vaccinated, as will the Millinocket Regional Hospital.

About 69 percent of Maine residents aged 12 or older received the full regimen of doses needed to be considered fully immunized against the disease. There have been more than 700 so-called “breakthrough” infections of fully vaccinated individuals, although health officials stress that those vaccinated are much less likely to develop a sufficiently severe case requiring hospitalization or causing death.

According to case rate measurements used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, masks are recommended in indoor public places for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people in 14 of Maine’s 16 counties. The recommendation, which was adopted by the Maine CDC, is based on a community transmission rate of at least 50 cases per 100,000 people in those counties.

Androscoggin, Aroostook, Cumberland, Franklin, Hancock, Knox, Lincoln, Oxford, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, Washington, and York counties all have substantial transmission levels, based on Maine CDC case data reported. updated Wednesday. Waldo County was the only place with high levels of community transmission.

Kennebec and Sagadahoc counties had moderate transmission rates.

This story will be updated.

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