Update: There are now 734 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 20 deaths in Maine. Read the latest story here.
As of Monday, there are now 698 cases of the new coronavirus spread across 15 of Maine’s counties, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Monday saw the largest single-day spike in confirmed coronavirus cases — 65 — since the virus was first detected in Maine on March 12. The bulk of those new cases — 46 — were reported in Kennebec County.
Health officials report that 124 Maine residents have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, while 273 have fully recovered from the virus.
The statewide death toll stands at 19.
Only one county — Piscataquis — has not recorded a confirmed case of the coronavirus.
Here’s the latest on the coronavirus and its impact in Maine.
— The Maine CDC will provide an update on the coronavirus at 2 p.m. The BDN will livestream the briefing.
— Power outages are always inconvenient. But during a pandemic — when the state is under a stay-at-home order and people are practicing social distancing — having no electricity can make preparing a meal even more of a challenge. Even if you are stuck with a powerless electric stove in terrible weather, there are ways to sustain yourself beyond the trail mix and energy bars you have sitting in your pantry. Here’s how to feed yourself without compromising your perishables should you lose power.
— The number of coronavirus cases at the Maine Veterans’ Home facility in Scarborough has more than tripled since Saturday, highlighting the vulnerability of long-term care facility residents to the highly contagious respiratory virus. Twenty-six residents and six staffers have tested positive for the virus. The facility is one of three long-term care centers in Maine where outbreaks of the coronavirus have occurred recently. The Maine Veterans’ Home recorded its first case in late March.
— The already daunting task of finding staff for Maine’s nursing homes and assisted living facilities is only growing more difficult now that the spread of the coronavirus has been documented in some of those places. At least two dozen workers have been infected in the ongoing outbreaks that have been detected at facilities in Belfast, Augusta and Scarborough. Those workers must now leave work for at least two weeks to recover and ensure they’re not contagious, even as the facilities must take on the added stress of caring for sick residents.
— This isn’t the way Betsy Steen and her husband wanted to spend their golden years: Hunkered down at home, living with fear and isolation. Steen, 76, and her husband, 75-year-old David, both take immuno-suppressant medications, placing them at high risk if they contract the coronavirus. They try to keep positive, but it’s hard to escape the flood of bad news. States with older populations carry special worries during the deadly pandemic.
— The Amtrak Downeaster has suspended its passenger rail service through the end of April, when Democratic Gov. Janet Mills’ stay-at-home order expires.
— Republican President Donald Trump found himself at odds Monday with many governors who want to keep in place stay-at-home orders and other measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus. Trump claimed he has “total” authority over when the U.S. economy restarts. The pushback against that was bipartisan, with Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire saying that “these executive orders are state executive orders and so therefore it would be up to the state and the governor to undo a lot of that.”
— As of Tuesday morning, the coronavirus has sickened 582,594 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 23,694 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
— Elsewhere in New England, there have been 844 deaths from the coronavirus in Massachusetts, 602 in Connecticut, 73 in Rhode Island, 28 in Vermont and 23 in New Hampshire.