30 more Mainers die as 438 new coronavirus cases are reported in the state

By Rosemary Lausier, Bangor Daily News Staff

This story will be updated. 

Another 30 Mainers died as health officials on Saturday reported 438 more coronavirus cases across the state.

Saturday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 33,219, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 32,781 on Friday.

Of those, 27,249 have been confirmed positive, while 5,970 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.

The 30 deaths reported on Saturday bring the statewide toll to 507. 

The Maine CDC continues to report widespread high levels of community transmission, defined as a case rate of 16 or more per 10,000 people, even in counties once largely spared the worst of the pandemic.

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, 1,242 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. As of Friday, 193 patients are currently hospitalized with 61 in critical care and 24 on a ventilator. 

Vaccinations have been administered to 70,228 Mainers so far, with 10,617 having received two doses. 

There have been 1,328,905 negative test results out of 1,368,816 overall. About 2.85 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 9,735 cases have been reported and where the bulk of virus deaths — 124 — have been concentrated. Other cases have been reported in Androscoggin (3,563), Aroostook (1,011), Franklin (561), Hancock (680), Kennebec (2,535), Knox (479), Lincoln (393), Oxford (1,549), Penobscot (2,850), Piscataquis (162), Sagadahoc (613), Somerset (938), Waldo (428), Washington (492) and York (7,222) counties. Information about where an additional eight cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.

As of Saturday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 23,532,606 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 392,139 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.