Another Mainer dies as 590 more coronavirus cases are reported across the state
By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff
Another Mainer has died as health officials on Wednesday reported 590 new coronavirus cases across the state.
Wednesday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 23,499, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 22,909 on Tuesday.
Of those, 20,064 have been confirmed positive, while 3,435 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.
A York County resident has succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 334. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.
Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 431.6, down from 452.7 a day ago and 459.1 a week ago but up from 172 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, 1,039 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Of those, 177 people are currently hospitalized, with 48 in critical care and 19 on ventilators.
As of Wednesday, 23,527 Mainers have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
A majority of the cases — 13,774 — have been in Mainers under age 50, while more cases have been reported in women than men, according to the Maine CDC.
As of Wednesday, there have been 1,164,246 negative test results out of 1,193,676 overall. About 2.4 percent of all tests have come back positive, Maine CDC data show.
The coronavirus has hit hardest in Cumberland County, where 7,055 cases have been reported and where the bulk of virus deaths — 94 — have been concentrated. Other cases have been reported in Androscoggin (2,616), Aroostook (585), Franklin (449), Hancock (531), Kennebec (1,764), Knox (361), Lincoln (296), Oxford (1,096), Penobscot (1,971), Piscataquis (112), Sagadahoc (367), Somerset (737), Waldo (378), Washington (357) and York (4,815) counties. Information about where an additional nine cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.
As of Wednesday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 19,530,197 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 338,831 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.