13 more Mainers die as 702 coronavirus cases are reported across the state

By Lindsay Putnam, Bangor Daily News Staff

This story will be updated.

Thirteen more Mainers died as health officials on Thursday reported 702 new coronavirus cases across the state.

Thursday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 24,201, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 23,499 on Tuesday.

Of those, 20,637 have been confirmed positive, while 3,564 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.

The latest deaths include four people in Aroostook County, three in Cumberland County, three in Oxford County, two in York County and one in Hancock County. The statewide death toll now stands at 347. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.

So far, 1,065 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. As of Wednesday, 177 people are currently hospitalized, with 48 in critical care and 19 on ventilators.

An additional 48 people have recovered from the coronavirus, bringing the total number of Mainers who have recovered to 11,374. That means there are at least 12,480 active cases in the state, up from 11,839 on Wednesday. 

As of Wednesday, 23,527 Mainers have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

A majority of the cases — 14,295 — 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 7,233 cases have been reported and where the bulk of virus deaths — 97 — have been concentrated. Other cases have been reported in Androscoggin (2,667), Aroostook (617), Franklin (451), Hancock (550), Kennebec (1,812), Knox (370), Lincoln (301), Oxford (1,115), Penobscot (2,050), Piscataquis (117), Sagadahoc (387), Somerset (743), Waldo (380), Washington (377) and York (5,030) counties. Information about where an additional case was reported wasn’t immediately available.

As of Thursday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 19,745,885 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 342,414 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.