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Another Mainer has died as health officials reported Wednesday that 41 more cases of the new coronavirus were detected. The man who died was in his 70s and a resident of Knox County, marking that county’s first coronavirus death.
There have now been 2,418 cases across all of Maine’s counties since the outbreak began here in March, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 2,377 on Tuesday.
Of those, 2,152 have been confirmed positive, while 266 are likely positive, according to the Maine CDC.
[Our COVID-19 tracker contains the most recent information on Maine cases by county]
The statewide death toll now stands at 95.
Maine has recorded more than 40 individual coronavirus outbreaks — locations with three or more related cases — in recent months at places including nursing homes, group homes for people with intellectual disabilities, workplaces and the Maine Correctional Center in Windham. On Wednesday, another outbreak was reported at an Eldredge Lumber location in York County, said Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah. So far, 13 people have tested positive as part of that outbreak.
So far, 285 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Of those, 44 people are currently hospitalized, with 14 in critical care and 10 on ventilators, according to the Maine CDC.
Meanwhile, 1,699 people have fully recovered from the virus, meaning there are 624 active and likely cases in the state, according to the Maine CDC. That’s down from 637 on Tuesday.
Here’s the latest on the coronavirus and its impact on Maine.
—Maine’s public health agency has released limited data showing the number of coronavirus cases by town, making Maine the last state in New England to release that more granular level of data showing the spread of the coronavirus.
—The Mills administration is circulating a proposal to allow tourists to skip Maine’s 14-day quarantine requirement for out-of-state visitors if they can provide recent negative COVID-19 test results. The administration expects to finalize the plan as early as the end of this week, according to the draft plan sent by a hotel owner to the Bangor Daily News.
—Frances Jordan Banks, a 102-year-old World War II Army nurse who served in India and spent many years on an Aroostook County potato farm, lived a life that was book-ended by pandemics. The Cape Elizabeth native was born during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, and died a few days ago of COVID-19.
—The New England stock car racing season gets under way on Sunday when the Pro All Stars Series North tour kicks off its 20th campaign with at least three races at the White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, New Hampshire. Fans will not be allowed due to COVID-19 restrictions, but the racing will be televised on a pay-per-view basis on the Northeast Sports Network.
— As of Wednesday evening, the coronavirus has sickened 1,847,412 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 107,023 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
— Elsewhere in New England, there have been 7,152 coronavirus deaths in Massachusetts, 3,989 in Connecticut, 742 in Rhode Island, 265 in New Hampshire and 55 in Vermont.
Watch: Maine CDC press conference, June 3
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