Maine sees record-high 824 coronavirus cases and 4 more deaths
By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff
This story will be updated.
Maine saw a record-high 824 coronavirus cases on Wednesday as another four Mainers have died.
Wednesday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 31,150, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 30,326 on Tuesday.
Of those, 25,708 have been confirmed positive, while 5,442 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.
Two Penobscot County residents and two York County residents have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide toll to 453. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.
Wednesday’s report shattered the previous record high — 782 — recorded this past Friday. It marked a sharp reversal from a weekend slump that saw new cases slide to their lowest level in weeks. That suggests Maine has not yet turned a corner in the monthslong surge in virus transmission, which has hit even those counties largely spared early on in the pandemic.
Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 582.7, up from 538.6 a day ago, up from 512.4 a week ago and up from 364.3 a month ago. Before this surge began about three months ago, Maine’s seven-day average was hovering in the 30s.
So far, 1,201 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 — 18,544 — have been in Mainers under age 50, while more cases have been reported in women than men, according to the Maine CDC.
As of Tuesday, there have been 1,289,051 negative test results out of 1,326,840 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 8,982 cases have been reported and where the bulk of virus deaths — 115 — have been concentrated. Other cases have been reported in Androscoggin (3,370), Aroostook (943), Franklin (539), Hancock (655), Kennebec (2,372), Knox (450), Lincoln (376), Oxford (1,472), Penobscot (2,682), Piscataquis (150), Sagadahoc (568), Somerset (902), Waldo (413), Washington (462) and York (6,788) counties. Information about where an additional 26 cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.
As of Wednesday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 22,848,707 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 380,821 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.