Seven more Mainers die as another 590 coronavirus cases are reported across the state
By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff
This story will be updated.
Another seven Mainers have died as health officials on Tuesday reported 590 new coronavirus cases across the state.
Tuesday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 22,909, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 22,319 on Monday.
Of those, 19,582 have been confirmed positive, while 3,327 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.
An Androscoggin County resident, two Cumberland County residents, an Oxford County resident, two Penobscot County residents and a York County resident have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 333. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.
Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 453.3, up from 434.6 a day ago, up from 430.7 a week ago and up from 163.6 a month ago.
Health officials have warned Mainers that “forceful and widespread” community transmission is being seen throughout the state. Every county is seeing high community transmission, which the Maine CDC defines as a case rate of 16 or more cases per 10,000 people.
There are two criteria for establishing community transmission: at least 10 confirmed cases and that at least 25 percent of those are not connected to either known cases or travel.
So far, 1,041 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Information about those who are currently hospitalized wasn’t immediately available.
A majority of the cases — 13,368 — have been in Mainers under age 50, while more cases have been reported in women than men, according to the Maine CDC.
As of Monday, there have been 1,152,276 negative test results out of 1,180,847 overall. More than 2.3 percent of all tests have come back positive, the most recently available Maine CDC data show.
The coronavirus has hit hardest in Cumberland County, where 6,879 cases have been reported and where the bulk of virus deaths — 94 — have been concentrated. Other cases have been reported in Androscoggin (2,533), Aroostook (528), Franklin (448), Hancock (514), Kennebec (1,727), Knox (353), Lincoln (291), Oxford (1,081), Penobscot (1,923), Piscataquis (111), Sagadahoc (363), Somerset (723), Waldo (376), Washington (343) and York (4,703) counties. Information about where an additional 13 cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.
As of Tuesday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 19,310,599 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 335,051 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.