Maine’s COVID-19 hospitalizations have risen 46 percent in the past 10 days.
That comes as a surge in cases accompanying the spread of the so-called stealth omicron variant — BA.2 — gains a foothold in Maine, erasing for the moment gains the state made in reducing hospitalizations since the winter.
There are now 169 Mainers infected with the virus in hospitals across the state as of Wednesday morning, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 162 the day before and 116 on April 24.
That’s a 46 percent increase, data show. It’s also the highest point hospitalizations have reached in Maine since late February, when they were on a rapid slide down from the peak set during the winter omicron surge.
Of those, 30 Mainers are in critical care and three on ventilators. Both are unchanged from the day before.
Despite the renewed surge in cases and hospitalizations, the situation in Maine is not as dire as during the peak of winter, when more than 430 Mainers were hospitalized at one point with the virus and the Maine CDC was swamped with a backlog of positive cases.