Maine CDC reports 414 new COVID-19 cases, another death

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 414 new cases of COVID-19 and one additional death on Saturday, the fifth consecutive day of more than 400 new cases.

People under 30 made up 186 cases on Saturday, or 45 percent of the daily total. But Maine’s vaccination effort is booming and is now at the top of the country in percentage of residents who have received both doses of COVID-19 vaccine. The national average for full vaccination is 24.3 percent, and Maine was 31.4 percent on Saturday.

Maine’s cumulative COVID-19 cases rose to 56,939 on Saturday, of which 42,807 were confirmed by tests and 14,132 are considered probable cases of COVID-19. The seven-day average of new daily falls was 456.4 on Saturday, which quickly came close to the highs seen in January’s boom.

Seven hundred and sixty-four people have been killed by COVID-19 since the Maine pandemic began. The person who reported dead on Saturday was a man in his 60s from Androscoggin County, the CDC in Maine said.

Before Saturday, there were four consecutive days of new cases above 500. The average of seven days has risen by more than a hundred cases in the past week.

Maine’s public health officials are now focusing on getting shots in the arms as quickly as possible.

“Large-scale mass vaccination sites of this nature are our way out of the pandemic,” said Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine CDC, said Friday. “Vaccination is currently our focus because it will ultimately help us fight the pandemic.”

Maine’s high vaccination rate stems from the demand among the population, as well as the efficient distribution of doses to make sure it is available where it is needed, Shah said. An important part of the state’s vaccination campaigns are mass vaccination sites, he said Friday when he visited a venue at the Portland Expo.

State leaders had hoped to set up many “pop-up” clinics in rural areas to reach Mainers with the one-shot vaccine Johnson & Johnson, but these shots were interrupted amid reports that the vaccine may be related to blood clots. The reports occur in a handful of people out of millions of people who have already received doses.

As the other two major variants, from Pfizer and Moderna, ensure height and safety, Bowdoin College on Friday is the first institution of higher education in Maine to be vaccinated for students to return to campus for the fall. Students must provide proof of vaccination by 13 August and the faculty or staff by 24 August.

Many other colleges across the country require immunization, including Duke, Rutgers, Brown, Cornell, Northeastern and Notre Dame.

By Saturday morning, Maine had given 558,306 people the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 421,765 received a final dose. Of the population of 1.3 million, 41.53 percent received their first dose.

As of Saturday, there were 6,324 cases of coronavirus in Androscoggin, 1556 in Aroostook, 15,277 in Cumberland, 1,131 in Franklin, 1,193 in Hancock, 5,070 in Kennebec, 898 in Knox, 768 in Lincoln, 2,916 in Oxford. , 5,048 in Penobscot, 416 in Piscataquis, 1,159 in Sagadahoc, 1,657 in Somerset, 773 in Waldo, 807 in Washington and 11,942 in York.

By age, 17.1 percent of patients were younger than 20, while 18.6 percent were in their twenties, 14.5 percent in their thirties, 13.3 percent were in their forties, 15 percent were in their fifties, 10, 9 percent were in their 60s, 5.7 percent were in their 70s, and 4.7 percent were 80 or older.

Cumberland County has seen the most new cases in the past week, with 644 compared to York’s 603 and Androscoggin’s 502.

Of the 99 patients who had COVID-19 in Maine hospitals Saturday, 40 were in intensive care and 15 in ventilators. The state has 78 beds available for intensive care units, of which a total of 382 and 233 ventilators out of 319 are available. There were also 448 alternative fans.

According to Johns Hopkins University, there were more than 140.2 million cases of COVID-19 and 3 million deaths worldwide late Saturday afternoon. The United States had 31.6 million cases and 566,714 deaths.

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