The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday reported 44 cases of the novel coronavirus and no additional deaths, as active cases and hospitalizations grow with outbreaks in York and Oxford counties.
Maine had 576 active cases on Sunday, an increase of 26 from Saturday. Maine also had 16 patients with COVID-19 across its hospitals, an increase from Saturday’s 14 and from recent lows in late July, which saw fewer than 10 coronavirus hospital patients across the state on some days.
Maine’s cumulative cases rose to 5,079. Of those, 4,562 have been confirmed by testing and 517 are considered probable cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
One hundred thirty-nine people have died with COVID-19 in Maine, and 4,364 have recovered from the disease.
A rash of outbreaks in York County has driven case numbers higher in recent weeks, as Sanford social clubs such as Baker Co., the Elks Lodge, the American Legion, the Lafayette Social Club and the Sanford VFW have detected more cases.
York County’s cumulative case load grew by 15 to 1,060 on Sunday – about a third of the day’s new cases.
Also last week, Inland Hospital in Waterville quarantined 10 members of its staff who came into contact with a patient later discovered to have COVID-19. Two of those staff members have tested positive for the virus, Inland Hospital, part of the 10-hospital Northern Light Health network, announced late Saturday. The infected employees were not care providers, and had “social contact with the patient prior to admission,” the hospital said in a statement.
Much of the growth in cases in York County has been linked to a crowded wedding reception in Millinocket that has directly or indirectly led to at least 177 cases and, as of Saturday, eight deaths.
The reception took place on Aug. 7. Since late August, Maine state officials have stepped up enforcement for pandemic-era business regulations, issuing citations to 14 establishments for “imminent health hazards” related to virus control.
Before the enforcement push, the state had issued only two such citations since the pandemic began, according to records obtained by the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram.
Most of the cited businesses are restaurants, and all received information about health and safety requirements – such as face coverings and social distancing – before enforcement action took place, health officials said.
The state has also received thousands of complaints through an online portal hosted by the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development. Some were duplicates, or were complaints about Gov. Janet Mills’ pandemic-related restrictions; still, officials followed up on more than 1,000 complaints.
The University of Maine System on Sunday reported an additional case of COVID-19, at the University of Southern Maine. A student living in off-campus housing tested positive for the virus and is in isolation, university officials said. That raises the number of active cases to one across all eight of the system’s schools.
County by county in Maine since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 682 COVID-19 cases in Androscoggin, 42 in Aroostook, 2,282 in Cumberland, 59 in Franklin, 53 in Hancock, 206 in Kennebec, 35 in Knox, 39 in Lincoln, 121 in Oxford, 252 in Penobscot, eight in Piscataquis, 64 in Sagadahoc, 86 in Somerset, 73 in Waldo, 15 in Washington, and 1,060 in York.
By age, 10.8 percent of patients were under 20, while 16.8 percent were in their 20s, 15.3 percent were in their 30s, 14.5 percent were in their 40s, 16.2 percent were in their 50s, 11.5 percent were in their 60s, 7.6 percent were in their 70s, and 7.3 percent were 80 or over.
Women still make up a slight majority of cases, at just over 51 percent.
Of the 16 patients in Maine hospitals with COVID-19 on Sunday, four were in intensive care and one was on a ventilator. The state had 117 intensive care unit beds available of a total 380, and 248 ventilators available of 317. There were also 444 alternative ventilators.
Around the world on Sunday night, there were 30.9 million known cases of COVID-19 and more than 959,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had over 6.7 million cases and 199,474 deaths.
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