3 more Mainers die as another 525 coronavirus cases are reported across the state

Another three Mainers have died as health officials on Wednesday reported 525 more coronavirus cases across the state.

Wednesday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 27,090, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 26,565 on Tuesday.

Of those, 22,794 have been confirmed positive, while 4,296 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.

A man in his 70s from Cumberland County and two men in their 80s from Penobscot County residents have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 372. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.

Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 513.7, down from 523.3 a day ago and 598 a week ago but up from 264.6 a month ago.

Wednesday’s report marked the seventh time in the past 10 days when new cases exceeded 400 and the second time this week when they crested 500. It comes as elevated virus transmission continues its monthslong surge, bringing high levels of community transmission, which the Maine CDC defines as a case rate of 16 or more cases per 10,000 people, even to counties once largely spared the worst of the pandemic.

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, 1,124 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Of those, 191 people are currently hospitalized, with 59 in critical care and 21 on ventilators.

Maine has vaccinated 38,065 people against COVID-19.

A majority of the cases — 16,154 — have been in Mainers under age 50, while more cases have been reported in women than men, according to the Maine CDC.

As of Wednesday, there have been 1,225,863 negative test results out of 1,259,455 overall. About 2.6 percent of all tests have come back positive, Maine CDC data show.

The coronavirus has hit hardest in Cumberland County, where 7,970 cases have been reported and where the bulk of virus deaths — 107 — have been concentrated. Other cases have been reported in Androscoggin (2,932), Aroostook (785), Franklin (496), Hancock (600), Kennebec (2,008), Knox (385), Lincoln (325), Oxford (1,231), Penobscot (2,355), Piscataquis (130), Sagadahoc (791), Somerset (791), Waldo (389), Washington (411) and York (5,837) counties. Information about where an additional 12 cases were reported wasn’t immediately available.

As of Wednesday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 21,074,724 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 358,107 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.