The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported Sunday on 350 cases of the new coronavirus and another death toll, which continues to raise the state’s seven-day average as older senior staff wait for guidance on how to receive a vaccine .
The state’s cumulative cases rose to 25,592. Of these cases, 21,693 were confirmed by tests and 3,899 are considered probable cases of the coronavirus.
Three hundred and fifty-nine people have been killed by COVID-19 since the Maine pandemic began. The person who allegedly died Saturday was a Hancock County man in his 60s, the Maine CDC said.
The state’s seven-day average new cases daily reached 531.4 on Sunday and hospitalizations rose to 190 across the country. Meanwhile, Maine has given at least the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine to 32,995 people.
Maine was one of the fastest-growing states in terms of population to distribute COVID-19 vaccines, according to data maintained by Bloomberg News. But some older Mainers are asking for clearer communication from government officials and vaccine providers about when it is their turn to be vaccinated.
The first doses in Maine will go to frontline health workers and residents of long-term care facilities, but people over the age of 75 will be given preference in the next phase of the state’s distribution plan. It makes older residents wonder how to align themselves.
In Florida, the decision by government officials to distribute vaccine on a first-come-first-served basis to the elderly has led to long queues and overnight camps at vaccination facilities. The Maine CDC says it is still working out the details of vaccine distribution in this next phase of the plan, and is considering moving people over 75 in front of essential workers in the vaccine.
The Public Health Agency recently said that officials are likely to rely on primary care physicians or other medical workers to notify older patients that they are eligible for a vaccine.
Maine’s rapid deployment of the vaccine means the state has already given about 50 percent of the doses provided by the federal government last week. This is a higher percentage than any other state.
Meanwhile, the Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor last week saw an increase in COVID-19 inpatients. In the largest hospital in Eastern Maine, its daily average inpatients rose to 51.9 for the week ending Thursday, compared to 44 the previous week and 26.6 the week before.
Per province in Maine since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 2,754 coronavirus cases in Androscoggin, 713 in Aroostook, 7,627 in Cumberland, 464 in Franklin, 557 in Hancock, 1,907 in Kennebec, 379 in Knox, 312 in Lincoln, 1,148 in Oxford, 2222 in Penobscot, 120 in Piscataquis, 404 in Sagadahoc, 761 in Somerset, 385 in Waldo, 389 in Washington, and 5443 in York.
By age, 13.8 percent of patients were younger than 20, while 17.9 percent were in their twenties, 14.6 percent in their thirties, 13.1 percent in their 40s, 15.7 percent in their 50s, 11, 9 percent were in their 60s, 6.9 percent were in their 70s, and 6.2 percent were 80 or older.
Maine hospitals on Sunday had 190 patients with COVID-19, of whom 47 were in intensive care and 20 in ventilators. The state has 88 beds available for intensive care units, of which a total of 384 and 213 ventilators out of 320 are available. There were also 443 alternative fans.
There were nearly 84.6 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide and 1.8 million deaths worldwide Sunday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has had 20.4 million cases and more than 350,000 deaths.
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