Maine CDC reports 300 new cases of COVID-19, 9 more deaths

State health officials on Wednesday reported 300 new cases of COVID-19 but nine more deaths.

The 300 new infections are a marked drop from the seven-day average and the record number of cases the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention recorded over several days last week. Maine recorded an average of 515 new cases per day for the week ending Wednesday, up from 559 for the same period a week ago.

Maine’s positivity rate, which reflects the percentage of tests that come back positive for the coronavirus, has also declined in recent days. The seven-day positivity rate now stands at 4.3%, well below the rate of over 6% a few weeks ago.

Hospitalizations from COVID-19 have also dropped precipitously, and state health officials are hoping these are signs the latest wave is abating.

The number of people hospitalized on Wednesday fell to 166, the lowest in more than a month. Of those, 51 people are in intensive care, the lowest total since Aug. 22, according to the CDC. The total number of hospitalizations has fallen by 42% since it peaked at 235 on September 25, just 11 days ago, and the number of intensive care hospitalizations has declined by 65% ​​during that time. .

The Maine CDC lab is also making progress in reducing the backlog of positive cases requiring testing to distinguish new infections from repeat positive tests for known cases. The backlog stood at 600 cases on Tuesday, up from about 2,500 cases requiring review a week earlier.

The nine additional deaths brought the total number of COVID-related deaths in Maine to 1,045 for the pandemic, although the timing of the deaths was not immediately clear. To date, the Maine CDC has tracked 92,665 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 since March 2020.

Maine CDC director Dr Nirav Shah is expected to brief on the state’s COVID-19 situation at 2 p.m.

On the vaccination front, 74.4% of all eligible Mainers had received either the two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or the single injection vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday. This figure drops to 65.5% if we include children under 12 who are not yet eligible for vaccination.

Maine continues to have one of the highest full vaccination rates in the country, led only by Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

This story will be updated.

” Previous

Next ”

Related stories