Maine’s COVID-19 hospitalizations have hit a seven-week high.
That comes as hospitalizations have been trending up again since the beginning of April after a steady months-long decline as Maine emerged from the winter omicron surge.
There are now 130 Mainers hospitalized with the virus across the state as of Monday morning, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 116 on Sunday and 93 a week earlier.
Of those, 25 Mainers are in critical care and three are on ventilators. The number of Mainers in critical care has risen over the past week, while held largely steady for weeks, state data show.
It’s the most hospitalizations Maine has seen since March 9, when there were 131.
The rise in hospitalizations follows a renewed surge in cases as more transmissible offshoot of the so-called stealth omicron variant gains a foothold across New England, making up 12 percent of new cases in Maine and 20 percent across the region.
Despite the recent uptick in hospitalizations, they remain markedly down from the pandemic high of 436, set in January.