A Mainer has died as 20 new cases of coronavirus are reported in Maine, health officials said Thursday.
Thursday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 4,253. Of these, 3,812 were positively confirmed, while 441 were classified as “probable cases,” according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The agency changed its cumulative total to 4,233 on Wednesday, down from 4,234. While the Maine CDC continues to investigate previously reported cases, some determine that it has not been coronavirus, or coronavirus cases that do not involve Mainers. These are removed from the cumulative total of the state.
New cases were reported in Cumberland (3), Penobscot (2), York (7), Androscoggin (1), Aroostook (2), Oxford (1), Kennebec (3) and Somerset (1) state data from the province
The death toll now stands at 128. Almost all deaths have been in Mainers over the age of 60.
To date, 405 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Of those, seven are currently hospitalized, with one in critical care and one on a ventilator.
Meanwhile, 17 more people have recovered from the coronavirus, bringing the total recovery to 3,679. That means there are 446 active and “likely” cases in the state, rising from 445 on Monday.
A majority of the cases – 2,385 – have been in Mainers under the age of 50, while more cases have been reported in women than men, according to the Maine CDC.
As of Thursday, there have been 223,023 test results out of 229,055 everywhere. Just under 2.3 percent of all tests returned positive, according to data from Maine CDC.
The coronavirus is the most severely affected in Cumberland County, where 2,148 cases have been reported and where the majority of virus deaths – 69 – are concentrated. It is one of four counties – the others being Androscoggin, Penobscot and York, with 582, 202 and 713 cases respectively – where “community transmission” has been confirmed, according to the Maine CDC.
There are two criteria for setting up community transmission: at least 10 confirmed cases and that at least 25 percent of those are not related to known matters such as travel. That second condition is not yet “satisfied” in other counties.
Other cases have been reported in Aroostook (35), Franklin (47), Hancock (42), Kennebec (175), Knox (28), Lincoln (35), Oxford (59), Piscataquis (7), Sagadahoc (58), Somerset (42), Waldo (64) and Washington (15) counties. The location of one case was not known Thursday.
As of Thursday morning, the coronavirus has killed 5,532,566 people sick in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the US Virgin Islands, as well as causing 173,241 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
