Seven Mainers have died as another 406 coronavirus cases have been reported across the state, Maine health officials said Wednesday.
Wednesday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 14,454, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 14,409 on Tuesday.
Of those, 12,678 have been confirmed positive, while 1,776 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.
The statewide death toll stands at 246. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.
The deaths announced on Wednesday were a man in his 100s from Androscoggin County; a man in his 80s from Cumberland County; a woman in her 90s from Hancock County; a man in his 80s from Hancock County; a woman in her 80s from Androscoggin County; a man in his 80s from Cumberland County; a man in his 50s from York County.
The agency revised Tuesday’s cumulative total to 14,048, down from 14,049. As the Maine CDC continues to investigate previously reported cases, some are determined to have not been the coronavirus, or coronavirus cases not involving Mainers. Those are removed from the state’s cumulative total. The Bangor Daily News reports on the number of new cases reported to the Maine CDC in the previous 24 hours, rather than the increase of daily cumulative cases.
New cases were reported in Aroostook (16), Washington (1), Penobscot (46), Hancock (15), Somerset (17), Waldo (6), Lincoln (1), Sagadahoc (1), Kennebec (34), Franklin (10), Oxford (21), Androscoggin (39), Cumberland (99) and York (84) counties. state data show. Information about where an additional 18 cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.
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The seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 321.9, which is up from 298 a day ago but up from 169.4 a week ago and up from 158.3 a month ago.
Health officials have warned Mainers that “forceful and widespread” community transmission is being seen throughout the state. Every county is seeing high community transmission, which the Maine CDC defines as a case rate of 16 or more cases per 10,000 people.
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.
So far, 819 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. As of Wednesday, 173 Mainers are hospitalized, with 42 in critical care and 15 on a ventilator.
Meanwhile, 91 more people have recovered from the coronavirus, bringing total recoveries to 10,338. That means there are 3,870 active confirmed and “probable” cases in the state, which is up from 3,563 on Tuesday.
A majority of the cases — 8,569 — have been in Mainers under age 50, while more cases have been reported in women than men, according to the Maine CDC.
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As of Wednesday, there have been 980,878 negative test results out of 1,001,035 overall. About 1.9 percent of all tests have come back positive, the most recently available Maine CDC data show.
The coronavirus has hit hardest in Cumberland County, where 4,457 cases have been reported and where the bulk of virus deaths — 76 — have been concentrated. Other cases have been reported in Androscoggin (1,813), Aroostook (228), Franklin (281), Hancock (338), Kennebec (1,099), Knox (230), Lincoln (186), Oxford (529), Penobscot (1,176), Piscataquis (62), Sagadahoc (191), Somerset (528), Waldo (271), Washington (199) and York (2,848) counties. Information about where an additional 18 cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.
As of Wednesday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 15,173,851 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 286,338 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
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