Maine CDC reports 224 new coronavirus cases, more deaths

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday reported 224 cases of the novel coronavirus and no additional deaths, an increase more in line with the recent upward trend after the holidays that brought testing down on Friday and Saturday.

Maine’s cumulative cases rose to 11,508 on Sunday, of which 10,315 were confirmed by testing and 1,193 are considered probable cases of COVID-19.

One hundred and ninety-one people have died from COVID-19 in Maine and 8,952 have recovered from the disease. Maine had 2,365 active cases as of Sunday.

The seven-day average of new daily cases in Maine now stands at 165.1, from a high of 221 on November 25.

Maine reported just 22 new cases on Saturday, but the low number was likely the result of labs across the country taking a break over Thanksgiving, a Maine CDC official said. The public health agency, which closed its lab on Thanksgiving Day but was open on Friday, received fewer samples from labs in Maine and across the country at the end of the week.

Meanwhile, hospitalizations continue to rise in Maine. As of the end of Saturday morning, 125 people with COVID-19 were in hospitals in Maine, an increase of six since Friday. Updated hospital statistics were not available on Sunday evening.

Several hospitals in Maine last week reported record numbers of hospitalized patients with COVID-19, many in central and eastern Maine.

Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor treated an average of 22.2 COVID-19 hospital patients per day for the six days ending Wednesday – the highest COVID-19 patient load in the state. MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta and Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston have also broken their own records for COVID-19 patients.

York County has also seen an increase in hospitalizations, with Maine Health Care Medical Center in Biddeford and York Hospital recording records.

The University of Maine system reported 114 active cases across its eight schools on Sunday, two more cases than Saturday.

The University of Southern Maine had a new case in an employee and a student at the University of Maine at Presque Isle also tested positive for COVID-19.

Across the eight schools, there were 104 active cases at the University of Maine at Orono, four at the University of Maine at Farmington, three at USM, two at the University of Maine at Augusta, and one at the UMPI.

County by county in Maine since the start of the pandemic, there have been 1,495 cases of coronavirus in Androscoggin, 137 in Aroostook, 3767 in Cumberland, 212 in Franklin, 243 in Hancock, 768 in Kennebec, 202 in Knox, 155 in Lincoln, 332 in Oxford, 857 in Penobscot, 42 in Piscataquis, 149 in Sagadahoc, 445 in Somerset, 228 in Waldo, 191 in Washington and 2283 in York.

By age, 13% of patients were under 20, 18.6% in their twenties, 14.9% in their thirties, 13.2% in their forties, 15.4% in their fifties, 11.6% in in their 60s, 7.2% in their 70s, and 6.2% were 80 or older.

Women still represent a slight majority of cases, at just over 51%.

Of the 125 patients with COVID-19 in hospitals in Maine on Saturday, 49 were in intensive care and 18 on ventilators. The state had 112 intensive care unit beds out of a total of 379 and 230 ventilators available out of 315. There were also 444 reciprocating ventilators.

As of Sunday night, worldwide there were 62.6 million known cases of COVID-19 and 1.45 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had 13.3 million cases and 266,813 deaths.

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