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Another four Mainers have died as health officials confirmed 21 more cases of the new coronavirus in the state on Tuesday.
There have now been 1,226 confirmed and likely coronavirus cases across all of Maine’s counties, according to Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah. That’s up from 1,205 on Monday.
Of those, 1,150 have been confirmed positive, while 76 are likely positive, according to the Maine CDC.
The latest deaths include a man and a woman, both in their 70s, from Kennebec County, and a man in his 70s and a man in his 80s, both from Cumberland County.
The statewide death toll stands at 61.
[Our COVID-19 tracker contains the most recent information on Maine cases by county]
So far, 187 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Of those, 36 people are currently hospitalized, with 18 in critical care and 12 on ventilators, according to the Maine CDC.
Health care workers have comprised 269 of the confirmed cases in Maine.
Meanwhile, another 741 people have fully recovered from the coronavirus, meaning there are 424 active and likely cases in the state. That’s down from 428 on Monday.
The outbreaks at long-term care facilities in the state include the Augusta Center for Health and Rehabilitation (38 confirmed cases among residents, 28 confirmed cases among staff, and seven deaths); Edgewood in Farmington (10 residents, five staff, one death); Falmouth by the Sea (29 residents, 16 staff, two deaths); Maine Veterans’ Homes in Scarborough (32 residents, 23 staff, 12 deaths); Tall Pines (32 residents, 11 staff, 12 deaths) and The Cedars (10 residents, five staff, one death).
At the Tyson Foods plant in Portland, 25 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, Shah said. This is in addition to 12 cases previously reported, bringing the facility’s total to 37 cases. Those 25 new cases are not included in today’s case totals as the Maine CDC awaits further test results.
A majority of the cases have been in Mainers over age 50, while more cases have been reported in women than men, according to the Maine CDC.
Another 19,546 people have tested negative for the coronavirus, according to the Maine CDC.
So far, the coronavirus has hit hardest in Cumberland County, where 571 cases have been confirmed and where the bulk of deaths from the virus — 30 — have been concentrated. It is one of four counties — the others are Androscoggin, Penobscot and York, with 62, 85 and 226 cases, respectively — where “community transmission” has been confirmed, according to the Maine CDC.
There are two criteria for establishing community transmission: at least 10 confirmed cases and that at least 25 percent of those are not connected to either known cases or travel. That second condition has not yet been “satisfied” in other counties.
Other cases have been detected in Aroostook (6), Franklin (29), Hancock (10), Kennebec (105), Knox (16), Lincoln (13), Oxford (15), Piscataquis (1), Sagadahoc (19), Somerset (17), Waldo (49) and Washington (2) counties.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the coronavirus has sickened 1,201,337 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 70,646 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
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