11 more Mainers die as 701 coronavirus cases are reported across Maine
BDN staff reports
This story will be updated.
Another 11 Mainers have died as health officials on Wednesday reported 701 more coronavirus cases.
The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 7,898. This is an estimation of the current number of active cases in the state, as the Maine CDC is no longer tracking recoveries for all patients. That’s up from 7,721 on Tuesday.
It marked a sharp uptick in new cases after three consecutive days when they slipped below 400, the longest sustained drop Maine has seen in recent weeks. Still Wednesday’s report is a far cry from the dizzying heights new cases reached — including an-all-time high of 824 — last week.
Five Cumberland County residents, a Kennebec County resident, four Penobscot County residents and a York County resident have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 530.
Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 546.4, down from 564 a day ago and from 581.7 a week ago, but up from 436 a month ago.
The new case rate statewide Wednesday is 5.24 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide is 261.23.
Wednesday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 34,963, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 34,262 on Tuesday.
Of those, 28,253 have been confirmed positive, while 6,440 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.
The most cases have been detected in Mainers in their 20s, while Mainers over 80 years old make up the majority of deaths. More cases and deaths have been recorded in women than men. For a complete breakdown of the age and sex demographics of cases, hospitalizations and deaths, use the interactive graphic below.
So far, 1,287 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Information about those currently hospitalized wasn’t immediately available.
The total statewide hospitalization rate on Wednesday is 9.62 patients per 10,000 residents.
Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (3,847), Aroostook (1,062), Cumberland (10,128), Franklin (603), Hancock (704), Kennebec (2,685), Knox (525), Lincoln (407), Oxford (1,657), Penobscot (3,031), Piscataquis (174), Sagadahoc (653), Somerset (990), Waldo (440), Washington (527) and York (7,516) counties. Information about where an additional 14 cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.
For a complete breakdown of the county by county data, use the interactive graphic below.
As of Wednesday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 24,256,319 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 401,797 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.