279 more coronavirus cases have been reported across Maine

By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff

This story will be updated.

Another 279 coronavirus cases have been reported across the state, Maine health officials said Sunday.

Sunday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 29,298, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 29,019 on Saturday.

Of those, 24,430 have been confirmed positive, while 4,868 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.

Sunday marked the first time since Dec. 20 when the Maine CDC reported no new coronavirus deaths, leaving the statewide toll at 432. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.

So far, 1,158 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 — 17,512 — have been in Mainers under age 50, while more cases have been reported in women than men, according to the Maine CDC. 

As of Friday, there have been 1,251,474 negative test results out of 1,286,695 overall. Nearly 2.7 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 8,598 cases have been reported and where the bulk of virus deaths — 111 — have been concentrated. Other cases have been reported in Androscoggin (3,173), Aroostook (851), Franklin (514), Hancock (621), Kennebec (2,181), Knox (415), Lincoln (355), Oxford (1,311), Penobscot (2,555), Piscataquis (142), Sagadahoc (506), Somerset (853), Waldo (403), Washington (429) and York (6,389) counties. Information about where an additional two cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.

As of Sunday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 22,138,994 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 372,522 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.