11 more Mainers die as another 715 coronavirus cases are reported across the state
By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff
This story will be updated.
Another 11 Mainers have died as health officials on Tuesday reported 715 more coronavirus cases across the state.
Tuesday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 30,326, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 29,611 on Monday.
Of those, 25,163 have been confirmed positive, while 5,163 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.
An Androscoggin County resident, four Cumberland County residents, an Oxford County resident, three Penobscot County residents, a Somerset County resident and a York County resident have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide toll to 449. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.
Tuesday’s report marked a sharp upturn in new cases after an early-week slump when they fell to 279 on Monday and 313 on Tuesday, among the fewest new cases Maine has seen in recent weeks. It’s the fourth highest single-day increase recorded so far; the record high is 782 seen last Friday.
Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 539.9, up from 521.3 a day ago, up from 523 a week ago and up from 353.6 a month ago.
So far, 1,189 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 — 18,039 — 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 1,280,185 negative test results out of 1,317,371 overall. Nearly 2.8 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 8,814 cases have been reported and where the bulk of virus deaths — 115 — have been concentrated. Other cases have been reported in Androscoggin (3,274), Aroostook (928), Franklin (525), Hancock (647), Kennebec (2,272), Knox (3436), Lincoln (367), Oxford (1,413), Penobscot (2,616), Piscataquis (149), Sagadahoc (539), Somerset (874), Waldo (411), Washington (455) and York (6,590) counties. Information about where an additional 16 cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.
As of Tuesday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 22,619,353 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 376,283 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.