Maine CDC reports 357 new cases of coronavirus, another 20 deaths

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 357 cases of the new coronavirus on Saturday and 20 additional deaths, mostly from earlier in the month, as the state rushes its vaccination program by admitting admission to public safety workers and people 70 and older brei.

The state is also delivering more vaccine doses to long-term care facilities. On Friday, public health officials reported giving 8,827 doses the previous day – a record in Maine. As of Saturday, 108,519 Mainers received their first doses of COVID-19 vaccine, and 36,837 received the second dose, meaning there were a total of 7,825 new doses on Friday.

The cumulative cases of coronavirus in the state rose to 39,168 on Saturday, of which 31,567 were confirmed by tests and 7,601 are considered probable cases of COVID-19. The seven-day average of daily new cases on Saturday was 367.6.

Five hundred and ninety people have died with COVID-19 since the Maine pandemic began. Eighteen of the 20 deaths reported on Saturday occurred earlier – between January 10 and 23 – and are now attributed to COVID-19. Of the deceased were 15 women and five men. Thirteen were 80 or older, four were in their 70s, one was in their 60s, and two were in their 50s. Two were from Androscoggin County, four from Aroostook, three from Cumberland, one from Kennebec, one from Oxford, five from Penobscot, one from Washington and three from York County.

The increased distribution of vaccines has not been accompanied by more doses from the federal government – or at least not yet, government officials said on Friday. The Biden administration has announced that states will receive 16 percent more doses for the next three weeks from next week.

Until that happens, Maine is allocating more doses from the same nationwide offering.

The percentage of Maine’s population who received the first dose passed 8 percent on Saturday. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population is 1.34 million in the state.

Also in the past week, state education officials have shifted the Cumberland County risk category for school reopening to ‘green’, meaning the risk of COVID-19 proliferation is low enough for personal education.

A ‘yellow’ designation with a higher risk has until recently meant that government officials recommend that schools avoid extracurricular activities such as school sports. But last week, the Maine Principals’ Association announced that they would use the color names only as recommendations for personal learning, and not as activities such as sports.

The positive trends in Cumberland County and elsewhere led Janet Mills, the government, last week to lift a direct 21:00 evening curfew at the indoor eatery. From Monday, those businesses can resume their normal hours.

Per province in Maine since the onset of the pandemic, there have been 4,302 coronavirus cases in Androscoggin, 1,129 in Aroostook, 11,160 in Cumberland, 767 in Franklin, 773 in Hancock, 3,102 in Kennebec, 577 in Knox, 468 in Lincoln , 1,905 in Oxford, 3,408 in Penobscot, 200 in Piscataquis, 772 in Sagadahoc, 1,084 in Somerset, 507 in Waldo, 618 in Washington and 8,389 in York.

By age, 14.7 percent of the patients were younger than 20, while 17.9 percent were in their twenties, 14.5 percent in their thirties, 13.1 percent were in their forties, 15.4 percent were in their 50s, 11.8 percent were in their 60s, 6.8 percent were in their 70s, and 5.8 percent were 80 or older.

Of the 161 patients who had COVID-19 in Maine hospitals Saturday, 51 were in intensive care and 27 in ventilators. The state has 93 beds available for intensive care units, with a total of 391 and 228 ventilators out of 320. There were also 443 alternative ventilators.

According to Johns Hopkins University, there were 102.3 million cases of COVID-19 and 2.2 million deaths worldwide late Saturday afternoon. The United States had 26 million cases and 438,451 deaths.

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