The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday reported four deaths and 56 additional cases of the novel coronavirus, a rise in fatalities on the weekend before a planned reopening of much of the state’s economy.
The report brings cumulative totals in Maine to 2,282 cases and 89 deaths. Of the total case number, 2,025 have been confirmed by testing and another 257 are considered “probable.”
Hospitalizations, a key measure of Maine’s readiness to reopen, dipped on Saturday to 46. The state had recently seen a rise in people admitted to hospitals with COVID-19, a number that reached as high as 60 during the past week.
The people reported Saturday to have died were a woman in her 50s from York County, and a woman in her 90s, a woman in her 60s and a man in his 70s, all from Cumberland County.
Subtracting numbers of people who have recovered – 1,505 – and died, there were 688 active cases on Saturday.
On Monday, Maine plans to reopen retail stores, campgrounds and state parks. The maximum size of public gatherings will also increase from 10 to 50. In three counties, restaurants will be able to offer outdoor seating.
Still, Mills postponed indoor dining in Cumberland, York and Androscoggin counties, where restaurants had been scheduled to be allowed to offer that service beginning Monday.
The decision angered some restaurant owners, who said they had already made preparations to open for indoor dining. On Saturday, the Maine Department of Corrections announced that Mills had directed the state’s prisons to offer to purchase food that restaurants have prepared and now can’t serve.
Restaurants interested in selling their food to the Maine DOC may email Associate Commissioner Karen Yeaton at DOCINFO@maine.gov by Friday, including information about what kind of food is available, in what quantity, and for what price.
The governor is still defending in court a 14-day quarantine rule for out-of-state visitors. The owners of two restaurants and two campgrounds last month sued to have it lifted, saying it was unnecessarily restrictive and harmful to their business. On Friday, a federal judge denied a motion for a preliminary injunction against the rule, just hours after the U.S. Justice Department threw its weight behind the plaintiffs.
County by county on Saturday, there were 287 coronavirus cases in Androscoggin, 10 in Aroostook, 1,146 in Cumberland, 36 in Franklin, 11 in Hancock, 128 in Kennebec, 20 each in Knox and Lincoln, 33 in Oxford, 100 in Penobscot, one in Piscataquis, 30 in Sagadahoc, 22 in Somerset, 51 in Waldo, two in Washington, and 381 in York.
By age, 4.7 percent of patients were under 20, while 13.2 percent were in their 20s, 13.7 percent were in their 30s, 15.7 percent were in their 40s, 18.2 percent were in their 50s, 13.5 percent were in their 60s, 10.2 percent were in their 70s, and 10.7 percent were 80 or over.
Women are still the majority of cases, at 51.7 percent.
Of the 46 patients with COVID-19 in Maine hospitals on Saturday, 18 were in intensive care and 11 on ventilators. The state had 238 ventilators available of a total 319, and 139 intensive care unit beds available of 394. Maine also had 441 alternative ventilators that breathe for patients with aggressive cases.
Around the world on Saturday evening, there were more than 6 million cases of COVID-19, and over 367,000 deaths. The United States had more than 1.7 million cases and 103,605 deaths.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
