The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 357 cases of the novel coronavirus Saturday and 20 additional deaths, mostly from earlier in the month, as the state ramps up its vaccination schedule by extending eligibility to public safety workers and people 70 and older.
The state is also supplying more vaccine doses to long-term care facilities. On Friday, public health officials reported they had given 8,827 doses the day before – a record in Maine. As of Saturday, 108,519 Mainers had received their first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 36,837 had received a second, meaning there was a total of 7,825 new doses on Friday.
The state’s cumulative coronavirus cases rose to 39,168 on Saturday. Of those, 31,567 have been confirmed by testing and 7,601 are considered probable cases of COVID-19. The seven-day average of daily new cases was 367.6 on Saturday.
Five hundred ninety people have died with COVID-19 since the pandemic began in Maine. Eighteen of the 20 deaths reported Saturday occurred earlier – between Jan. 10 and 23 – and have now been attributed to COVID-19. Of those deceased, 15 were women and five were men. Thirteen were 80 or older, four were in their 70s, one was in their 60s, and two were in their 50s. Two were from Androscoggin County, four from Aroostook, three from Cumberland, one from Kennebec, one from Oxford, five from Penobscot, one from Washington, and three from York County.
The increased vaccine distribution hasn’t been accompanied by more doses from the federal government – or at least not yet, state officials said Friday. The Biden administration has announced that, starting next week, states will receive 16 percent more doses for the next three weeks.
Until that happens, Maine is allocating more doses from the same statewide supply.
The percentage of Maine’s population that has received its first dose passed 8 percent on Saturday. The state’s population is 1.34 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Also this past week, state education officials moved Cumberland County’s risk category for school reopening to “green,” meaning the risk of COVID-19 spread is low enough for in-person instruction.
Until recently, a higher-risk “yellow” designation meant that state officials recommended that schools avoid extracurricular activities such as school sports. But last week the Maine Principals’ Association announced that it would take the color designations as recommendations only for in-person learning, and not activities such as sports.
The positive case trends in Cumberland County and elsewhere led Gov. Janet Mills this past week to lift a statewide 9 p.m. curfew on indoor dining. Starting Monday, those businesses may resume their normal hours.
County by county in Maine since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 4,302 coronavirus cases in Androscoggin, 1,129 in Aroostook, 11,160 in Cumberland, 767 in Franklin, 773 in Hancock, 3,102 in Kennebec, 577 in Knox, 468 in Lincoln, 1,905 in Oxford, 3,408 in Penobscot, 200 in Piscataquis, 772 in Sagadahoc, 1,084 in Somerset, 507 in Waldo, 618 in Washington and 8,389 in York.
By age, 14.7 percent of patients were under 20, while 17.9 percent were in their 20s, 14.5 percent were in their 30s, 13.1 percent were in their 40s, 15.4 percent were in their 50s, 11.8 percent were in their 60s, 6.8 percent were in their 70s, and 5.8 percent were 80 or older.
Of the 161 patients with COVID-19 in Maine hospitals on Saturday, 51 were in intensive care and 27 were on ventilators. The state had 93 intensive care unit beds available of a total 391, and 228 ventilators available of 320. There were also 443 alternative ventilators.
Around the world late Saturday afternoon, there were over 102.3 million known cases of COVID-19 and 2.2 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had 26 million cases and 438,451 deaths.
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