6 more Mainers die as another 675 coronavirus cases are reported across the state

By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff

This story will be updated.

Another six Mainers have died as health officials on Thursday reported 675 more coronavirus cases.

The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 8,013. 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 7,898 on Wednesday. 

It marked a reversal from Wednesday’s spike when new cases shot up to 701 after a sustained dayslong streak below 400.

Two Cumberland County residents, a Kennebec County resident, a Penobscot County resident, a Washington County resident and a York County resident have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 536.

Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 527.9, down from 546.3 a day ago and from 620.6 a week ago, but up from 423.4 a month ago. That average peaked at 625.7 on Jan. 14, and since then, it has been on a sustained decline.

The new case rate statewide Thursday is 5.02 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide is 265.16.

Thursday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 35,638, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 34,963 on Wednesday. 

Of those, 28,999 have been confirmed positive, while 6,639 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.

So far, 1,294 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.

Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (3,916), Aroostook (1,066), Cumberland (10,276), Franklin (631), Hancock (708), Kennebec (2,771), Knox (529), Lincoln (414), Oxford (1,702), Penobscot (3,058), Piscataquis (177), Sagadahoc (671), Somerset (1,016), Waldo (444), Washington (535) and York (7,723) counties. Information about where an additional case was reported wasn’t immediately available.

As of Thursday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 24,439,427 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 406,162 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.