Maine CDC reports one more death, 33 new cases of coronavirus

Maine reported 33 new cases of the new coronavirus on Saturday and one additional death, limiting a week of low hospitalizations and case counts, while other parts of the country are experiencing sudden increases.

Cumulative Maine cases increased to 3,790, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those cases, 3,387 have been confirmed by testing and 403 are considered probable cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

One hundred and nineteen people have died. The person who reported Saturday’s death was a man in his 70s Somerset County, Maine CDC spokesman Robert Long said. “Maine CDC extends its condolences to his family and loved ones,” said Long.

Subtracting the number of people who recovered – 3,281 – and died, there were 390 active cases on Saturday.

COVID-19 hospitalizations remained low in Maine on Saturday, at 11 patients. State hospitalization rates have offered a hopeful trend amid rising numbers of cases in other parts of the country, and this week some Maine hospitals reported their fewest numbers of patients since the start of the pandemic.

As of Thursday, York County’s largest hospital, Southern Maine Health Care Medical Center in Biddeford, had not had an inpatient with COVID-19 since July 17. The Maine Medical Center in Portland, which has handled most of the patient burden, had an average of 3.7 patients during the week ending Thursday, below a peak of 35 reached in April and May.

However, hospitalization statistics are a “lagging indicator,” meaning that it takes one to three weeks to catch up with exposure to the disease.

And Maine has begun to see some effects of increased coronaviruses in the south and southwest. Wait times for test results in Maine are increasing as national laboratories see increased demand from other parts of the country. InterMed, a large primary care provider in Maine, is experiencing 12-day delays, a spokesperson said last week.

Losing that time can decrease the effectiveness of a test, because people can pass the virus on to others before they know they have it. But Maine’s largest hospital networks, MaineHealth and Northern Light Health, say their internal testing processing has spared them these delays.

Another sign of hope is Maine’s overall positive tests for COVID-19. Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine CDC, noted on Twitter on Saturday that Maine’s positive result rate remained low: 1 percent on average over the past week.

Shah also referred to the reported death Saturday, saying that CDC officials in Maine “offer their relatives and friends our condolences as they mourn his passing.”

County by county since the start of the pandemic, there have been 532 cases in Androscoggin, 31 in Aroostook, 2,004 in Cumberland, 45 in Franklin, 19 in Hancock, 157 in Kennebec, 25 in Knox, 33 in Lincoln, 48 in Oxford, 139 in Penobscot, three in Piscataquis, 40 in Sagadahoc, 34 in Somerset, 60 in Waldo, five in Washington and 614 in York.

By age, 8.9 percent of patients were under the age of 20, while 16.1 percent were 20 years old, 15.4 percent were 30, 15.3 percent were 40, 16.3 percent were 50, 11.6 percent. percent were 60, 8.1 percent in their 70s, and 8.4 percent were 80 or older.

Women are still the slight majority of cases, about 52 percent.

Of the 11 COVID-19 patients in Maine hospitals on Saturday, eight were in intensive care and two were on ventilators. The state had 122 intensive care unit beds available from 405 and 259 ventilators available from 318. Maine also had 441 alternative ventilators.

Worldwide, as of late Saturday afternoon, there were 15.8 million known cases of COVID-19 and more than 641,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States had more than 4.1 million cases and 146,073 deaths.

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