This story explains the times when the record number of COVID-19 deaths reported in Maine on Friday actually occurred.
Maine recorded six new deaths due to the coronavirus on Friday and added 35 deaths that had just been reported in December when 782 new cases were reported.
According to Friday’s report, the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine brings to 28,407, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This is higher than 27,625 Thursday.
Of those, 23,803 were positively confirmed, while 4,604 were classified as ‘probable cases’, the Maine CDC reported.
All of the deaths reported Friday bring the nationwide toll to 426. Almost all deaths in Mainers were older than 60 years. The 41 new deaths reported were technically a record, but 35 of them were only released after a Maine CDC review of key statistics on Friday afternoon after the agency posted death rates.
The six new deaths reported in the past 48 hours include a woman in her 90s and a man in his 80s from Aroostook County, a man in his 70s from Cumberland County, a man in his 70s from Penobscot County , and two women in their 70s and 80s from York County.
The 35 deaths as of December include a woman in her 70s, a woman in her 80s and a man in his 90s from Androscoggin County; a woman in her 80s, two women in their 90s, a man in his 50s, a man in his 70s and a man in his 80s from Aroostook County; a man in his 70s from Cumberland County; a man in his 70s and a man in his 80s from Franklin County; a woman in her 80s, four women in their 90s and a man in his 90s from Hancock County; a woman in her 60s, a woman in her 80s, a man in his 70s and a man in his 90s from Kennebec County; two women in their 80s, a woman in her 90s, a man in his 60s and a man in his 70s from Oxford County; a woman in her 90s and a man in his 80s from Penobscot County; a man in his 70s from Washington County; and a woman in her 70s, three women in their 90s and a man in his 80s from York County.
Friday’s report was the highest increase in single cases since Dec. 23, when Maine saw 753 new cases. This is the seventh time in the last ten days that new cases have exceeded 400, the fourth time this week when they crossed 500 and the second time this year when they rose above 700.
This comes as increased virus transmission continues its month-long surge, leading to high levels of transmission in the community, which the Maine CDC defines as a case of 16 or more cases per 10,000 people, even to provinces that have largely spared the worst of the pandemic .
There are two criteria for establishing community transfer: at least ten confirmed cases and that at least 25 percent of them are not related to known cases or travel.
Maine’s seven-day average for new cases of coronavirus is 501.7, up from 489.3 a day ago, up from 528.3 a week ago and up from 297.3 a month ago.
So far, 1150 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. Information on those currently admitted to the hospital was not immediately available.
As of Friday, 43,362 Mainers had received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine, while another 3,271 had received two doses.
A majority of the cases – 16,959 – were in Mainers under 50, while more cases were reported in women than men, according to the Maine CDC.
As of Friday, there were 1,251,474 negative test results out of the 1,286,695. Maine CDC data show nearly 2.7 percent of all tests.
The coronavirus hit hardest in Cumberland County, where 8400 cases were reported and where the majority of virus deaths – 110 – were concentrated. Other cases have been reported in Androscoggin (3,037), Aroostook (819), Franklin (508), Hancock (611), Kennebec (2,099), Knox (405), Lincoln (348), Oxford (1,272), Penobscot ( 2 452) Provinces of Piscataquis (137), Sagadahoc (489), Somerset (826), Waldo (395), Washington (423) and York (6,170). Information on where 16 more cases were reported was not immediately available.
As of Friday afternoon, the coronavirus had infected 21,717,216 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the US Virgin Islands, as well as causing 367,143 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.