The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday reported 18 new cases of the novel coronavirus and one additional death, following a week that saw 53 cases connected to a wedding reception in Millinocket.
Maine’s cumulative cases rose to 4,335 on Sunday, according to the Maine CDC. Of those, 3,890 have been confirmed by testing and 445 are considered probable cases of COVID-19.
There have been 131 deaths from COVID-19 in Maine. The person reported Sunday to have died was a woman in her 80s from Penobscot County, the Maine CDC said.
Subtracting the number of people who have recovered – 3,734 – and died, there were 470 active cases on Sunday.
The Maine CDC this weekend announced that even more cases of COVID-19 have been linked to a wedding reception in Millinocket. Fifty-three confirmed cases stemmed from the reception, health officials said, up from 32 cases known on Friday.
Authorities are still learning details of the reception, such as whether the venue enforced mask-wearing indoors, as is required for businesses under Gov. Janet Mills’ executive order.
Three students at the University of Maine in Orono also tested positive for COVID-19, the university announced last week. In a virtual news conference Saturday, school officials said all three students were experiencing mild symptoms at most, and had been quarantined as the university investigates 15 other possible points of contact they may have had while infected.
UMaine will still welcome back students starting Monday, with universal testing and precautions such as mandated mask wearing on campus, the officials said.
Meanwhile, the isolation and social pressure of the pandemic has led to an increase in domestic violence reports in Maine, resource centers around the state say. Phone calls to help lines have increased by 20 percent over the period of April through June, compared to the same period last year. Electronic contacts have increased even more, according to the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence – 145 percent over last year.
County by county in Maine since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 591 COVID-19 cases in Androscoggin, 37 in Aroostook, 2,160 in Cumberland, 48 in Franklin, 46 in Hancock, 179 in Kennebec, 28 in Knox, 35 in Lincoln, 59 in Oxford, 215 in Penobscot, seven in Piscataquis, 59 in Sagadahoc, 46 in Somerset, 69 in Waldo, 15 in Washington, and 741 in York.
By age, 9.9 percent of patients were under 20, while 16.3 percent were in their 20s, 15.2 percent were in their 30s, 14.8 percent were in their 40s, 16.3 percent were in their 50s, 11.5 percent were in their 60s, 8.1 percent were in their 70s, and 7.9 percent were 80 or over.
Women still make up a slight majority of cases, at just under 52 percent.
Maine’s hospitals had only four patients with COVID-19 on Sunday, of whom two were in intensive care and one was on a ventilator. There were 135 intensive care unit beds available of a statewide 392, and 251 ventilators available of 318. Maine also had 442 alternative ventilators.
Around the world on Sunday evening, there were nearly 23.3 million known cases of COVID-19 and 806,404 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had nearly 5.7 million cases and 176,659 deaths.
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